Shameless politicking
A local state senator has taken it upon himself to propose a measure to suspend the Pennsylvania state gas tax until October 31. He claims that “people can barely afford to travel to work” and that they “end up spending a large portion of their paycheck on gas.” My heart bleeds. Really.
It’s an pretty bad piece of legislation given the loss of revenue to the state and, even more so, the complete and utter lack of any action to combat our oil-fueled hedonistic culture. And I said as much (in less crazy terms) in a letter to the editor.
But what really gets me is Mr. Logan’s attempt to “humanize” the issue by telling the story of a 7-year old blind boy who won’t be able to get to summer camp because of the expense of getting him there.
Well, I feel for you and your son Ms. Travisano, but you’re being used as a shill.
Using the magic of the Internet, I discovered that such a trip to camp is approximately 14 miles. Round-trip, 28. We’ll round it up to 30 for good measure and to take into account the stop-and-go nature of the trip.
Let’s pretend that camp is 5 days a week, all summer long. June 1 to August 31. I’m sure it’s not. But I like to be on the high side of things. That’s about 70 days, give or take a few.
All said, that’s about 2100 miles of driving. Assuming a fuel efficiency of 20 mpg, one will use about 105 gallons of gas to make all of the trips.
The current fuel tax is 31.2 cents a gallon. For 105 gallons of gas, you will be paying about $33 in tax. Amortized over 70 days, that comes out to about fifty cents per day.
I don’t presume to know the details of anyone’s finances (beyond what is publicly available), but come on. Half a dollar a day? I’ll pay you $33 not to be used as the face of a piece of ridiculous legislation.
