Elsberry Votes Down a Gas Tax Increase

Elsberry, in Lincoln County, voted down a local gas tax increase proposal yesterday. Considering that the vote requires a two-thirds majority to win, it failed by a mile. I am embarrassed to admit I only recently became aware that cities in Missouri even had that option. According to the Post-Dispatch, only one small city in the entire state has implemented it — Matthews. See Article IV, Sec. 30(a)(3)3, aka page 67, of the Missouri Constitution for the applicable rules.

This is one local tax increase for which I could easily vote in favor. I prefer increased use of tolling to address most of our highway issues, but that is not realistic at the local road level. Per-mile charges raise serious privacy concerns for me, and although private local roads presently serve a worthy purpose, they have little chance of expanding beyond certain neighborhoods. That leaves us with gas taxes. I think most people would agree that the gas tax is one of the better taxes, from the perspective that the people who use the public asset end up paying for the majority of that asset.

If I lived in a community that was having legitimate issue with funding road maintenance, I could see myelf voting for a small, local gas tax increase.