Was looking at this article in the Sun today. I know prices at the pump were as high as I've ever seen over the Labor Day weekend (over $3 is new to me.)
But Mike Miller's idea is just plain wrong. All a price cap would do is create a shortage of gasoline. Why should oil companies lose money sending gasoline someplace they won't make a profit? I can imagine how bad it'll be for Hawaii since everything is shipped there. But it's the price you pay for not living near a supply of gasoline. About the only thing cheap there is pineapple.
Luckily Maryland is a small state so it's not much more than a gallon or two of gas to get someplace with a supply of gasoline should this hare-brained Miller scheme pan out. If my choice is to pay 15 cents more in Delaware or have no gas supply, guess what I do?
What irks me is that in this time of high prices that hurt consumers, Governor Ehrlich has flatly denied an opportunity for relief by saying no to suspending Maryland's 23.5 cent per gallon state gasoline tax, citing its contribution to maintaining highways.
Now I will agree that Maryland has a pretty good set of highways, save in the immediate Baltimore area (I-695 is pretty dreadful.) However, we were told that the state has a surplus of about $1 billion. According to the state, it collected roughly $750 million in gas taxes last year. So a 90 day suspension in the gas tax (to allow time for the market to stabilize) should cost the state about $190 million - an amount easily replaced by our surplus!
Generally I think Governor Ehrlich does a good job, but in this case he's thinking too much like a government employee. He needs to remember that the people do not serve government, the government is supposed to serve the people. In times where people have to do without because of circumstances not of their making, it behooves government to do the same.
But it never seems that government does without. It's always that tax cuts will "cost" government. Well, maybe if you in the bureaucracy took a look at what you really spend the money on, you'll notice that it's something that the private sector does a better job at more cheaply.
As regular readers know, I'm from Toledo, Ohio. It's a city that has collected a "temporary" 3/4% income tax since 1982. (It was $383 out of my last full year's wages there, really bad since I didn't live in the city by then.) This levy, by law, must go to the voters every 4-5 years. And every 4-5 years the city of Toledo threatens to cut police, fire, and garbage collection if it doesn't pass. This is because the "temporary" tax has now become 1/3 of the city's revenue.
Anyway, I seem to recall a study was done that showed it would be cheaper for the city to privatize garbage collection. Of course, the AFSCME union screamed bloody murder about what they termed a flawed study. So, of course, garbage collection is still unionized and now the threat is semi-weekly collection.
In this day and age, it never seems to be in government's interest to figure out ways to shrink itself. Rather than let the more efficient private sector do things and collect money, big government simply can't do without. It's illustrated by Governor Ehrlich's shortsighted refusal to suspend the gas tax in Maryland. Rather than give a little bit of freedom to the Free State, the governor tightens the screws on all our residents.
