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Colorado's gasoline tax of 18 cents per gallon is already among the highest in the nation. It might rise to 23 cents if the General Assembly finishes passing a bill which has received preliminary approval.
For once, our state legislators are on the right track. But they're not going far enough. They ought to set the tax at a more reasonable figure, and $10 a gallon is reasonable.
There are those who would object, arguing that tourists might shy away from Colorado if gas sold for $10.72 per gallon.
But tourists still go to Europe, where fuel runs $3 or $4 per gallon. Did anyone ever visit Texas 20 years ago just because regular was 18.9 at Lone Star pumps? Obviously, gas prices bear no relationship to a region's ability to attract tourists.
We might lose coast-to-coast traffic to Interstate 80 across Wyoming, but those aren't the people who stop and spend money, so we wouldn't be losing much. People traveling on the cheap would probably shun Colorado, too; again, we wouldn't be losing much. And a high gas tax means that the remaining auto-borne tourists would necessarily leave more money in Colorado, which is precisely what we've always wanted.
Most of the other seeming problems with a $10 gas tax would likewise turn into benefits, albeit with some adjustment.
People who commute great distances to work would suffer at first. But they would soon form car-pools, which would give them closer relationships with their co-workers. That would improve communication on the job, and thus overall productivity. Colorado gains a better business environment.
Or they would move closer to work. When people live and work in the same neighborhood, they get more involved in its activities; we'd see more interest in local governments and service organizations. Our communities would benefit.
Or they would demand better public transportation. As long as public transportation is the swaying long-distance bus full of crying babies and drooling drunks, or the lurching city bus hauling bag ladies and sweaty collectors of aluminum cans, then the political constituency for mass transit is nearly powerless.
But if the gainfully employed middle and upper classes started relying on mass transit, we'd see efficient, clean public transportation.
A high-tech revolution is already underway; you can
prepare your work on a home computer and send it in over
the phone. That's how this column gets from Salida to
Denver. High gasoline prices would encourage more of this,
making Colorado a leader in telecommuting.
That
means a growing pool of skilled labor, and again a more
attractive business climate.
Then again, many folks would walk or bicycle to work. Both are healthy activities, good for the heart, lungs and general disposition. Lives would be saved immediately, since cars kill about a dozen Coloradans every week.
People walking and peddling, going to and from work at all hours of the day or night, means a vast increase in the number of decent, law-abiding people on the streets. A nearly empty street means any pedestrian is easy prey for a mugger or rapist; a bustling sidewalk is by and large a safe sidewalk.
Making gasoline very expensive will abolish needless driving. No more rowdy teen-agers dragging up and down some preferred thoroughfare: West Colfax in Lakewood, F Street here, Main Street in Longmont, and so on around the state. People along those afflicted boulevards have been asking for a solution to this problem; here it is.
Consider the enormous decline in metropolitan air pollution with a $10 gas tax. Or the elimination of the need to construct new highways, and the substantially reduced maintenance that will be required of existing highways.
The state budget will show a magnificent surplus; we'd likely be able to abolish the sales and income taxes -- another improvement to the business climate, and that's something everybody from the governor on down has said we need.
It isn't often that our legislature gets the chance to improve the business climate, make neighborhoods more cohesive, encourage mass transit, promote high technology, strengthen public health, reduce street crime and highway carnage, eliminate adolescent cruising, cut down air pollution and slash much of the tax burden.
Raising the tax by a nickel won't even be a good start, though. Get it up to $10 a gallon, and see how Colorado prospers while becoming a vastly better place to live.
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