Democrat Rep. Pignatelli wants you to pay $9.50 in taxes every time you fill your gas tank
‘Taxes’ Pignatelli (William “Smitty” Pignatelli, D-Lenox), well known for his down-the-line support of all tax increases and anything the Democrat leadership wants, filed a home-rule petition to allow the town of Lee to charge a new tax:
3 cents per gallon on every gallon of gas.
Pignatelli wants every city and town to enact a gas tax, in addition to the EXCISE tax they already impose on every vehicle owner. Drivers already pay 24 cents/gallon to the state, plus 2.5 cents/gallon for the underground storage cleanup fund, and another 18.4 cents/gallon to the feds, and now they’ll pay an additional 3 cents/gallon in Lee (expect the number to increase…think camel nose under the tent…), for a total of 47.9 cents per gallon, or $9.58 in taxes every time you fill up your 20-gallon tank.
Pignatelli doesn’t give a damn that voters tanked the legislator’s plan to impose an automatic gas tax increase a year ago, and local gas stations won’t have the clout to fight against the bill. The bigger question: how did the town of Lee find itself with a need to spend more than $38 million on road and bridge repairs? What have they been doing over the years? Can you pronounce mis-managment?
NOTE #1: Massachusetts distributes more than $1.5 BILLION in Chapter 90 funds to city and towns to enact local road repairs. The state also spends billions more on state highways and roads through even the smallest of towns.
NOTE #2: Pignatelli doesn’t have to pay the tax, nor parking. He gets a stipend from the taxpayers for all his commuting to work, just like all the other legislators – just one of many perks of the job, at taxpayer expense.
NOTE #3: The new tax will be hidden, just in the price of gas, so no one will realize they’re paying $9.58 in taxes every time they fill up. And with two gas stations on the Mass. Pike out in Lee, they’re looking at looting uninformed drivers. Hidden highway robbery…
