Boneheaded Thinking Revisited

Every now and then I like to do a little looking back at issues or events that happened a while back, to see how things have turned out, even while everyone else has moved on to other issues, or perhaps entirely forgotten about them. Today I'd like to look at something that didn't happen, and show why that was a good thing.

You may recall that following the Katrina hurricane disaster in early September fuel prices started to hit record levels, peaking well above $3 per gallon. Republicans immediately saw this as an opportunity to strike a blow against gas taxes around the country, and in Washington state they proposed a three month suspension of the 31 cent gas tax (including the newly added 3 cent tax that was at the time subject to a repeal challenge in initiative 912).

They saw this as a means to pander to an electorate that they hoped would so strongly support their proposal that opposition to it by Democrats would be seen as political suicide.

Rep. John Ahern, R-Spokane said, "Until things stabilize, I think this would be a good thing to do. It's a great idea."

Fortunately, few agreed. Governor Gregoire correctly stated:

"The oil companies should be a primary target in looking for a solution to the high price of gas, not the citizens. Why should people in Washington state suffer fewer services so oil barons can continue to amass huge profits?"

Gregoire also keenly pointed out that none of the rollback talk ever included the same happening at the federal level, with regards to the 18 cent federal gas tax.

As an example of how poorly the idea played out in practice, a one month moratorium on Georgia's 14 cent gas tax resulted in gas stations only lowering prices a couple of pennies. You can guess what they chose to do with the other 12 cents.

Locally, the Seattle PI ran an editorial against the proposal, calling it "a blatant bit of off-session pandering".

Fortunately, the idea never picked up the necessary support to make it happen. In fact, a couple of months later the state soundly rejected the aforementioned initiative, I-912, clearly sending a message that Washingtonians recognized the necessity of the gas tax. Interestingly enough, another phenomenon also happened: prices started leveling off and gradually began to fall.

The chart above, taken from the Seattle Times, which runs it weekly in Friday's papers, shows just how much prices have dropped since the September highs. By mid-October prices had fallen 30 cents. Since that time they've fallen another half a dollar or more.

Had the short-sighted, pandering Republican proposal been adopted we'd still be in the midst of the gas tax suspension, and the estimated $90 million shortfall would have had to have been made up for by raiding the state's general fund reserves, at the cost of education, health care and other vital services.

This is why the proposal was such a bad idea. This is why we are fortunate it was not adopted or seriously pursued in Washington state. This is a telling example of how the policies of the Republican party are detrimental to this state's wellbeing.