Letters: You call this a gas tax increase? What a joke

In the late 1950s, a gallon of gasoline in Columbia sold for about 33 cents, of which 10 cents – roughly a third – was the gas tax. During the frequent gas wars of those days, the price got as low as 20 cents, so the gas tax constituted half the purchase price. We had the best highway system in the South. It was a relief to cross the Savannah River from Georgia, returning to a state that knew how to maintain its infrastructure.

Today, the gas tax constitutes roughly 8 percent of the price of a gallon. That’s a tax reduction of 75 percent, measured as a portion of the price of gasoline.

If it had been adjusted for inflation since 1958, that 10-cent tax would today be 83 cents — still roughly a third of the price of a gallon.

When politicians characterize a piddling 10-cent addition to the gas tax as an “increase,” a sharp class of third-graders would see the joke.

This story was originally published April 29, 2017 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Letters: You call this a gas tax increase? What a joke."