According to this Washington Post article, 80% of Virginians opposed a 15-cent a gallon gas tax increase in a recent public opinion poll.
First, these polls are fundamentally flawed. I won’t go into the statistical details- that topic will require a post of its’ own. But when pollsters offered the question to Virginians, they failed to mention that the governor’s proposed alternative to a gas tax is a 1% sales tax increase on everything except food. The results of the poll would be quite different if people had to face the reality of the cost of everything else going up.
Second, “15 cents a gallon” is an arbitrary number. No one in Virginia’s General Assembly has proposed such a large increase, and in fact state Sen. Richard Saslaw is taking about a 6 cent a gallon gas tax increase. The poll has no validity because the number is much higher than what is really needed and it did not mention the alternative sales tax increase.
Gas is too expensive as it is and no one wants the price to go up further due to taxes. But do the math- 6 cents a gallon on gas or 1% of everything else? For the majority of Virginia’s citizens, the 6 cents a gallon is the cheaper option.
