Louisiana Residents Showing Support For Tax Increases – Not All, But Some
I almost feel like that headline needs a disclaimer, " Not all Louisiana residents believe this way, not all residents will support these increases, not all of these increases have been totally thought out". There, now do you feel better? I hope you read it really really fast like the last ten seconds of a car commercial.
I like to think of myself as an inhabitant of the "World of Reasonable People". It's a great club, we meet after work every day at a bar and come up with common sense solutions that seem way to hard for the government to solve any level.
Let's take the proposed .23 cent increase in taxes on a gallon of fuel. Surprisingly there is a fair amount of public support for that idea. By the way that support is corroborated in a recently released study from LSU's Public Policy Research Lab.
In the World of Reasonable People, the thinking goes like this. Louisiana desperately needs bridges and roads repaired, rebuilt, or burned down. We as a state don't have the money needed to do that. The primary users of roads and bridges are vehicles that burn fuel. Let's place the burden of improving the roads and bridges on the people that use them the most.
Whether you agree or disagree with the tax increase you have to admit the reasoning makes more sense than say paying for new board room chairs at the Louisiana Senate by gutting the budget for higher education.
Just to be transparent, Louisiana residents, at least the majority of them still believe spending in government is way out of line. If we correct that then the idea of paying a little more in taxes suddenly becomes easier to swallow.
The bottom line in this revelation that people, regular people, reasonable people, do have ideas about government is this. Practical ideas yield practical solutions. It's when we get political that we become impractical.
I've had my say, let's hear yours. After all we all, live in The World of Reasonable People.