HB 1087 - Gas Tax Act of 2016 (Passed To President)

[Goldwater]

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Atlasian Regional Senate:
Passed 3-0-0-3 in the Atlasian Senate Assembled,
XLeinad
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Sponsor: Senator LongLiveRock

72 hour debate period, you know the drill.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

What is the current gas tax right now?

I must say that while I support renewable energy I remain skeptical about how helpful the funding allocated in this bill will be to development of renewable energy. Also who are the researchers that are accepting the money accountable towards. Finally on the subject of gas prices, with gas prices slowly on the rise again I am a bit skeptical of increasing the gas tax further increasing gas prices.   

[Enduro]

I don't really like increasing taxes, and won't support this.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

What is the current gas tax right now?

I must say that while I support renewable energy I remain skeptical about how helpful the funding allocated in this bill will be to development of renewable energy. Also who are the researchers that are accepting the money accountable towards. Finally on the subject of gas prices, with gas prices slowly on the rise again I am a bit skeptical of increasing the gas tax further increasing gas prices.   

The bill contains a formula the cuts the gas tax by 25% of the marginal amont of gas price over $2.50.

The current tax is 18 cents. So this is just 5 cents higher.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Atlasian Regional Senate:
Passed 3-0-0-3 in the Atlasian Senate Assembled,
XLeinad
[/quote]

Because this way, people can click the above linked vote and view the Senate thread. I started including linked votes/signatures for multiple important reasons, so please don't delete them.

[Potus]

This is an irresponsible decision that really targets the people we are all supposed to be helping. For one thing, it squeezes household budgets by enough to hurt but not enough to justify a big, socially engineered lifestyle change like going electric or whatever. For another, you're funding promises on quicksand. The revenue stream is going to be very volatile and won't support broad, longterm commitments to infrastructure.

[Representative simossad]

Every small contribution towards new green energy sources is a good contribution, and each of us has to see and accept the urgency of this issue. It would be illusory to think that we can combine the turnaround in energy policy with keeping our current standard of living. Climate change is real, it is caused by human activity, and it is more fatal than many of us think. We must think about our actions and we must think about our future. I can see Potus' point that this will be an increased burden for low-income household. I personally would prefer a solution that increases the accountability of high-income earners and large companies, but the currency and the importance of this issue urges me to support this bill.

[Spark]

I support this whole heartedly. We must shift to more sustainable sources of energy and impose a tax on gasoline. This will grant incentive to alternative forms of energy. Climate change can be slowed and its progress causes devastating effects on our community and poses a direct threat to our well beings.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

What is the situation here?

[Mike Thick]

I echo Potus's concerns in full.

[Goldwater]

Okay, it seems we are ready to vote on this. Voting will lats 72 Hours or until all members have voted. Please vote AYE, NAY, or Abstain.

[Representative simossad]

Aye

[OneJ]

Aye

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Aye

[Pragmatic Conservative]

Nay

[Enduro]

Nay

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

This bill was rewritten by a Federalist


The tax increased was scaled back and a formula attached to protect the poor from rising prices.

We need a base revenue for the general highway fund or anything we do is going to fail because the infrastructure will just fall further behind. We can deficit fund large infrastructure bills and we will just fall behind ten years later.


We need a base revenue stream paid for by the people that use the roads. The only problem with this is that it doesn't account for vehicles that don't use gasoline, like Diesel and also electric cars. I think we should look into that later.

For now though we have a bill that provides funding for research into alternative energy extraction, renewable energy vehicles and of course the the highway fund.

I understand completely the desire to keep taxes low and simple and I support ways of doing that. But I don't support continuing to deficit fund our responsibilities. Debt is a tax on the poor in and of itself that is paid in the form of rising fuel prices and food prices when the value of the currency declines as a consequence of the mounting debt, not to mention the cost of increased interest rates and homeowners.


Therefore I am going to have to disagree with my Federalist colleagues and vote

AYE

[Potus]

Nay. Reform the trust fund.

[Mike Thick]

Nay. Reform the trust fund.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

After doing some negotiations with speaker Yankee I feel comfortable passing this bill along with a separate proposed accountability bill. Therefore I change my vote to Aye

[Goldwater]

By a vote of 5-3, with one member not voting, this bill passes to the President for his signature or veto.

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Atlasian Regional Senate:
Passed 3-0-0-3 in the Atlasian Senate Assembled,
XLeinad

Atlasian People's House of Representatives
Passed 5-3 in the Atlasian House Assembled,
*insert Yankee's signature here*

President of Congress:

[/quote]

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Atlasian Regional Senate:
Passed 3-0-0-3 in the Atlasian Senate Assembled,
XLeinad

Atlasian People's House of Representatives
Passed 5-3 in the Atlasian House Assembled,


President of Congress:

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