Raise the Gas Tax to Pay for Better Transit
Letter to State Legislators from ACT, PGACT, and ATU Local 689, January 24, 2011
Maryland's transportation system is failing and more revenue is desperately needed to fix it. Transit expansions - the Purple Line, the Baltimore Red Line, and the MARC Growth and Investment Plan - are long overdue. Equally important is money to fix crumbling roads and bridges and maintain existing transit lines, which carry growing passenger loads on an aging infrastructure.
The immediate cause of the transportation funding crisis is the sharp decline in the user fee paid by drivers - the difference between the gasoline tax and the sales tax paid on other purchases. Over the 17 years since the gasoline tax was last adjusted by the General Assembly, the burden of supporting Maryland's transportation system has been lifted off the shoulders of drivers and placed on transit riders. In 1993, gas cost $1.10 per gallon at the pump. The gas tax of 23.5 cents was 27% of the pretax price of the gas. Today, the tax rate on a $3.05 gallon of gas has fallen to 8.3% of the pretax price, only slightly more than the 6% sales tax. While drivers contribute less, transit riders pay more - during those 17 years, fares were raised many times.
The current economic crisis requires us to use tax dollars more efficiently than in the past. Maryland is in a position to do that with strategic investments that bring out the full value of our existing transit lines. The Purple Line will offer fast, frequent transit between the Washington suburbs that Metro already connects with D.C. The Red Line, connecting with existing Metro and light rail lines, will make Baltimore once again a city where living without a car is convenient as well as affordable. MARC will be an all-day transit service, not just a commuter railroad. Through these investments, we will create a far more efficient transportation system, one that no longer forces commuters onto overcrowded and overpriced highways. At the same time, by encouraging transit-oriented development, we will reinvigorate our economy and rebuild the livable communities that our citizens yearn for.
We urge you to make this exciting vision a reality by restoring the highway user fee - only a partial restoration is necessary - closer to the 27% gas tax that was enacted in 1993. Resources are needed to free Marylanders from the tyranny of traffic jams by building frugal, cost-effective transit. This year's legislature has a great opportunity when it takes up the gas tax - not just to solve an immediate crisis, but to set us on a new path toward a far better future.
Sincerely,
Jackie Jeter, President, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689
Karren Pope-Onwukwe, President, Prince George's Advocates for Community-Based Transit
Tina Slater, President, Action Committee for Transit