We’re quite distressed the G.A., the Guvna, the transportation bureaucracy, the N.Va. developers and other special interests have gotten their knickers in a twist the last few years over the impending doom the Old Dominion’s woeful road situation is soon to pour down on us. Seems they’re all in a spot of bother over this Armageddon.
What’s the fuss? We have a simple answer.
We need money, right? Lots of it. That’s the only way to fix our transportation problems, or so we’re told. One side persistently wants to raise taxes. Another side says no (sometimes, kinda). Still others have made noise about legalizing new types of gambling and throwing that “voluntary tax” revenue to solve our transportation problems. Rumors floating around Capitol Square today are that this third group will hit the coming special session with more momentum.
Why go through all of that hassle? We already have mechanism in place. It just needs a bit of fine tuning.
The lottery was passed on the philosophy that it was a voluntary tax — only those who wanted to pay for it would pay it. (Actually, there’s a space on your Virginia Income Tax form to pay extra taxes voluntarily, but those preaching the need for more state taxes never lead by example.) So we have a lottery. Problem is, its revenues are limited to education funding.
Here’s the simple answer:
Double the cost on all lottery tickets. Amend the law so that 50 percent of all lottery revenue goes to transportation. Problem solved. Education money is not touched. Transportation gets its new revenue stream. Taxes are not raised but on those who wish to pay them. Say what? Higher prices may discourage people from buying lottery tickets? Or create an unfair burden? But somehow tax increases on necessities do not increase prices or are not burdensome?
Bingo! (Speaking of the devil, that’s another option.)
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe lottery was passed on the philosophy that it was a voluntary tax — only those who wanted to pay for it would pay it. (Actually, there’sa space on your Virginia Income Tax form to pay extra taxes voluntarily, but those preaching the … [...]
[...] admin wrote an interesting post today on Why All The Fuss? Hereâ
[...] admin wrote an interesting post today on Why All The Fuss? Hereâ
[...] Rebellion and many other digital journalistic pursuits. He apparently peruses our site, read our canny idea to fund transportation, and wrote about it on both of those sites [...]
[...] Don’t Mess With Taxes wrote an interesting post today on Why All The Fuss? Hereâ
[...] But there are other reasons to reject tax hikes for transportation (not to mention that the Governor Kaine apparently is not even considering our Lottery Ticket Increase plan even though others of high intelectual esteem are). But the primary reason is the new third rail [...]
[...] on this thread. Who knows? Maybe somebody in the General Assembly will like what you think. Remember our lottery idea? If you are creative enough, anything is [...]