Funny thing, I wrote the title yesterday before finishing this post, and low and behold today, the Journal Sentinel's James Rowen beat me to it. Knowing when I'm beat, here's what he wrote:
Ah, your $322. Remember all that dough you were getting back in tax savings from Daddy Walker Warbucks? Scott Walker bought a lot of votes for $322, and asked you what you planned on doing with it.
Well, now we know where some of it's going next year.
To higher electric rates, as ordered by his Public Service Commission. And, in one form or another - - higher prices at the gas pump and other 'transportation' taxes or fees - - to the politically-connected, well-oiled road-building-and-trucking machine to widen more highways though driving is on the decline.
Drivers in Wisconsin would have to pay an additional $751 million in taxes and fees over the next two years if a new transportation budget request is approved.
It came just over a week after Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who touted tax cuts on the campaign trail, won re-election.
Department secretary Mark Gottlieb said1. Cost increases would include a “highway use fee” for new vehicle purchases, which would amount to $800 on a $32,000 vehicle, he said.The proposal aims to shore up the state’s projected $680 million shortfall in the DOT’s 2015-17 budget. And it would increase the money taken from the general fund from $133 million to nearly $574 million.
2. Gas taxes would increase by about $27 a year linked in part to wholesale prices of fuel.
3. And the owners of hybrid and electric vehicles would also have to pay an annual $50 fee.
4. The gas tax overhaul and new fees for hybrid and electric cars mirror ideas floated by Walker during a meeting with the State Journal editorial board last month.
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