Would you raise gas tax or legalize statewide commercial gambling? (Phoenix: hotel, house)

[cactusland]

Weed and gambling. Arizona is a fool if we don't start making money on these items now. Other states are beating us to the punch for hemp growth and manufacturing.

[AZ Manager]

That bill does a lot more than you, or the poorly written article, state. It isn't a one time hike, the increase is spread out over several years. Additionally, it adds hefty fees to electric/hybrid vehicle registrations; these fees should be separated out and passed either way. And it ties it all to inflation so it will be an ever increasing tax.

Wish they would get off these stupid set amount taxes and just slap a % sales tax on it and be done with it already. It seems like we never stop talking about gas taxes lately. That increase is less than $0.01 a mile for my primary vehicle. Who cares, pass it and move along.

[banger]

Personally, I would cut spending until it came into line with income.

[wase4711]

legalize pot and gambling; as others have said, we are losing big money as every state around us is beating us to the pot..(pun intended)

[man4857]

I would as other's suggested legalize pot and gambling and use that money for transportation purposes.

But in addition, I would raise the gas taxes as well, although more moderately instead of .46 in 2 years. I would say something like .20 in 2 years would be acceptable. There's nothing unreasonable about increasing gas taxes since it hasn't been raised since 1991 (it should be reasonable to most to raise .19 to what it would be worth today at the most).

[AZ Manager]

Originally Posted by man4857

I would as other's suggested legalize pot and gambling and use that money for transportation purposes.

But in addition, I would raise the gas taxes as well, although more moderately instead of .46 in 2 years. I would say something like .20 in 2 years would be acceptable. There's nothing unreasonable about increasing gas taxes since it hasn't been raised since 1991 (it should be reasonable to most to raise .19 to what it would be worth today at the most).

You would raise it by $0.02 over 2 years? They aren't raising it by $0.46 they are raising it by $0.28.

Inflation adjusted from 1991 would be $0.33 or an increase of $0.15.

As for the legalization of marijuana, you won't get the revenue you expect. CA grossly missed their projections and the black market has seen major increases, same thing happened in CO. Legalize marijuana, yes; but don't expect to take in a bunch of new money from it.

Remember, Gov. Ducey just vetoed a tax bill that would bring taxes back down to where they were in before the Trump tax cuts for 2018 onward. His veto is among the first of many tax increases from our Republican elected officials. Add in the vehicle registration fee, and now this; they have a spending problem they need to address.

[fluffythewondercat]

Originally Posted by banger

Personally, I would cut spending until it came into line with income.

Yes. There’s always something that can be cut, even if it gores some politico’s ox.

[Hschlick84]

Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat

Yes. There’s always something that can be cut, even if it gores some politico’s ox.

I can't imagine how much the state government spends on wasteful projects that are unnecessary.

[PhoenixSomeday]

Echoing the legalizing of weed. I don't use it myself, nor do I ever plan to, but it's so benign compared to alcohol (which is somehow legal, despite the drastically worse effects and higher / more serious danger) and would be a good revenue source. Plus the plant apparently has a lot of other uses.

Increase in gas tax may not be as fruitful as they think in the coming decades. Fully electric vehicles are going to become more and more commonplace as the tech gets better and better. It'll eventually reach a point where there are more EVs than ICEs (internal combustion engines).

Which means that...

Originally Posted by AZ Manager

That bill does a lot more than you, or the poorly written article, state. ... Additionally, it adds hefty fees to electric/hybrid vehicle registrations

...I need to know more about this. I do want to go electric in the future, although I don't see it happening with my budget inside of 5-10 years if prices and high demand vs short supply continue as they are. But I'd still like to keep track of every aspect EV progress and what affects them.

EDIT: Looked up the bill, assuming it's House Bill 2536? Also assuming that the site I found accurately represents the text of the bill:

For 100% EV (Tesla, Leaf, etc)
First year: $130
Second year: $175
Third year: $198
Each year after that, adjusts (so, could go down?) in relation to the US GDP? (it says US Gross Domestic Product Implicit Price Deflator).

For Hybrids:
First year: $52
Second year: $70
Third year: $80
Each year after that, adjusts (so, could go down?) in relation to the US GDP? (it says US Gross Domestic Product Implicit Price Deflator).


Honestly though, that third year EV fee is only about 4 tanks of gas for me, which is about 5-6 weeks worth, so it's a lot lower than gas for a whole year. Although, I don't know how much it costs to charge such a car for the same number of miles driven.

[AZ Manager]

Originally Posted by PhoenixSomeday

Honestly though, that third year EV fee is only about 4 tanks of gas for me, which is about 5-6 weeks worth, so it's a lot lower than gas for a whole year. Although, I don't know how much it costs to charge such a car for the same number of miles driven.

Department of energy pegs the cost per mile of a gas vehicle to be about 2-3 times the cost of an electric vehicle. You can see their figures, updated regularly, at the link below.

https://www.energy.gov/articles/egal...es-big-picture