Legislative budget negotiators are still batting each other upside the head with words today. But for all the bluster, there’s no inkling that any of them have a clue on the real scope of the problem. Case in point: This bit from the House budgeteers to their Senate counterparts:
“Although I can appreciate the desire of the Senators to get as much as they can in these negotiations, and I know these three Democrat Senators have frequently expressed support for higher taxes, the Court’s decision did not say ‘raise the gas tax and the car sales tax’,” noted House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith. “It said we needed to change the method of enactment for the regional components of HB 3202 to ensure a body of elected officials imposed the taxes. That – and that alone – should be the focus of our negotiations.”
So the question, at least in Republican minds, isn’t about more taxes for roads…it’s just one of whose fingerprints are on the tax hike.
Simply stunning.