Gas tax
Removing the tax on gasoline for the summer is another 'feel good' idea, with no real benefit. The actual savings for any individual is really small. If a $.30 per gallon tax was removed for the
thireen weeks of summer and you bought 20 gallons a week the out of pocket savings would be $78.00. And while that is a nice chunk of change it really won't matter that much, and it isn't free, it is deferred.

Lost revenue
The gasoline taxes in most cases is aplied to the deprtment of transportatoin. The money pays for road construction and maintenance. It also subsidises mass transit: buses and trains. If that revenue were not collected those expenses would be met by borrowing the difference, increasing interest payments for years to come. Or items would be eliminated from the budget forcing a layoff of construction and maintenance workers, causing higher unemployment costs for us: (we are the government). If mass transit were forced to raise rates to cover the subsidy losses, then more comuters would turn to the roads and drive up the demand for gasoline, and there by prices, not to mention the increased wear and tear on the highways, which now have a reduced maintance budget.

Supplier and middleman increases
And if the taxes were removed would the oil companies raise their rates because the increases
wouldn't be felt as much? It is the nature of capitalism to maximize profits. Indeed it is the
responsibility of management to secure maximum return for the stock holders. It would be a breach of their feduciery responsibility to mantain the lower price. That is not goughing, that is business.


Price increase in September
And in September, when the price goes back up by $.30 per gallon, how will we react? I suspect we won't like it and there will be those who want to make the tax cut perminant. So the defered transportation projects will become elminated projects. More jobs lost and increased borrowing, driving up interest payments, slowing the economy, with higher unemployment leaving a crumbling infrastructure.

The cost
A short term solution must have real benefits in the future if it is to be adopted. Saving a few cents now does nothing to reduce a problem in he future. In fact it increases the problem. Lets use our economic clout to implement real solutions and not just feel slightly better for a few months so we can suffer in the fall.