TEA PARTY LEADER SAYS INCREASE IN GAS TAX BILL IS SIMPLY PAY-TO-PLAY
Akron, OH: Tom Zawistowski, President of the TEA
Party-affiliated We the People Convention, today challenged the integrity of
the proposed 18¢ per gallon increase in Ohio’s gasoline tax. The proposal put
forward by Republican Governor Mike DeWine also includes built-in future
increases based on the Consumer Price Index. The need for the tax increase is
being blamed on the failure to address the issue by former Governor John
Kasich.
Zawistowski said, “You know when Republicans are rushing legislation through
that the fix is in. It is unconscionable for the Ohio House to even consider
voting on this bill as early as this Thursday, March 7, 2019. We don’t even know
for sure how much we actually need for road and bridge repair, nor has there
been any discussion of how to deal with a future that includes electric and
higher gas mileage vehicles and what they should pay for road use. Nothing has
been discussed about how a gas tax increase affects rural citizens
disproportionately because they have to drive further to get everywhere. Yes,
all Ohioans want good roads and bridges; yes, a usage tax is more fair than
most other taxes; but if this was really about good governance and seriously
addressing these issues, there would be time and opportunity for community
input.”
Zawistowski
continued by saying, “No, they don’t want to have any discussion of those
things, because the fact is that this bill is nothing but payback to the
Democrat Unions who supported DeWine’s and, more aggressively, Republican
Speaker Larry Householder’s election in November. Democrat Unions gave
Householder hundreds of thousands of dollars, not only to win his election, but
to help elect dozens of other House members who would vote for Householder for
Speaker and are “expected” to vote for this tax increase. Now that
bill has come due and DeWine and Householder are going to stick We the People
with that $3 Billion bill. Any Republican that does vote for this tax increase
will have broken their tax pledge which will stay on their record forever. We
urge every Ohio citizen to call their House member immediately to remind them
of their pledge and let them know how you feel about this huge tax increase.”
Zawistowski concluded, “Even if the gas tax ends up being 10¢ or 12¢ and is not
indexed, real “Republicans” would make an effort to offset this tax
with tax cuts elsewhere in the budget. However, after hearing Governor DeWine’s
State of the State address today, it is clear that his administration is going
to tax and spend just like Democrats – with the support of the
“Republican” House and Senate. Political pundits like to say
that Ohio is a “Republican State” because “Republicans” hold the vast majority
of public offices. We the People know that Ohio is not a “Red State”, we are a
RINO State, just like we were for eight years under the fraudulent previous
Governor John Kasich who also paid off the Democrat Unions for his re-election
with his Turnpike deal. The Democrats aren’t stupid, they know they can’t win
state offices in Ohio, so they just buy them, and they get everything they
need, if not everything they want. That’s why DeWine pledged to veto any “Right
to Work” legislation, and you watch what happens next as Householder moves to
bail out Ohio’s nuclear plants because he also got big money from First Energy.
Republican voters bought a bill of goods last election, and this is just the
first example of what is coming the next eight years.”
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