I have been amazed about the amount of time the Media and our legislators have spent re-hashing how they are going to pay for the shortfall in road funding. The first thing that comes out of their mouths is ‘TAX INCREASE’.
I do understand that they will have to raise the money somehow, but I’m confused why one plan has been totally ignored; RAISE VEHICLE REGISTRATION FEES, and take a cut from there to pay for the shortfall in the gas tax. We pay some of the lowest registration fees in the country.
A couple of years ago a study showed that for every man, woman and child in South Dakota there was 1.5 registered vehicles. That is over 1 million vehicles. Even if you merely doubled the fee from an average of $50 to $100 you would raise $50 million dollars for roads. But the Sales Tax mentality of our Republican Governor and Legislators always comes up (because it shelters the wealthy who have mulitple cars, boats, motorcycles, etc.) The other major benefit of a Registration Fee increase would be disperesing that money to county and municipalities so they could use it to help maintain streets and bridges that already exist to.
I hope at least one legislator grows a brain before January and moves ahead with this idea.