nogastaxhike.com

Because New Jersey Motorists Already Pay Enough!

 

NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 7, 2003

CONTACT: Mayor Steve Lonegan (201) 342-8156.  Cell (201) 694-5020

 

-- Lonegan describes pro-gas tax hike group as “Unholy Alliance”

“BIG CORPORATIONS, BIG UNIONS, BIG LAWYERS, BIG BANKS AND BIG GOVERNMENT TRY TO STICK IT TO ‘THE LITTLE GUY’ AGAIN.”

 

Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan said today that the leading organization supporting a gasoline tax increase should change their name from the “Alliance for Action” to the “Unholy Alliance” and described the organization as made up of “big corporations, big unions, big lawyers, big banks and big government” trying to “stick it to ‘the little guy’.”

 

“These are the guys who got us into this mess in the first place,” said Lonegan, referring to both a March 1992 Alliance endorsement for Governor Florio’s $1.5 Billion plan to increase debt and fund non-construction costs and current state expenses with Trust Fund monies as well as a January 1995 backing of Governor Whitman’s decision to ‘renew’ the fund through a complex mixture of $1.6 Billion in new borrowing, dedicating three cents of the gasoline tax and continuing auto insurance surcharges set to expire.

 

The Alliance also endorsed a Whitman Administration plan to divert Transportation Trust Fund revenues for the controversial Auto Emissions Testing Program which caused long lines, cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and which was later scrapped.

 

“For decades, the Alliance for Action has been a leader in proposing taxpayer-ripoff schemes which have only helped fat-cat corporate, union, banking, legal and governmental interests at the expense of the consumer,” Lonegan said.  “They created the problem and now they have the arrogance to demand that taxpayers give them another fix of governmental heroin,” the Mayor added.

 

Lonegan, who founded www.nogastaxhike.com to fight the proposed more than doubling of the state gasoline tax, also called a recent press release by an Alliance front group, “Keep New Jersey Moving”, deceptive.  He noted that nowhere in the release were the words “tax”, “debt” or “borrow” mentioned.

 

“Anyone who took a look at just a handful of the more than 11,000 petitions we’ve received could see why,” he said.  “Even the ‘business, labor, government and academic leaders’ who make up the pro-gas tax hike organization know that voters understand this tax increase and new borrowing scam will destroy jobs – not create them, thereby hurting the economy and make things even tougher for working families, college students and retired senior citizens.  Everybody’s had enough and a line in the sand has been drawn.”

 

He also questioned the use of an NJIT “study” from 2001 “estimating” that the average annual cost of “congestion” per licensed driver is $1,255 or $7.8 Billion.

 

“Five years ago, they were throwing around a number of $732 Million,” Lonegan said, referring to a 1998 ‘study’ released by the Alliance in that year’s push for a gasoline tax hike.  “These numbers are clearly made up, have no relationship to anything and represent a poor attempt to defraud the public.  This is typical of Trenton’s view that voters are morons and will simply believe anything some official sounding group says,” added the Mayor.

 

“They attempt to sell the idea that a backbreaking 15 cent gasoline tax hike will eliminate all traffic problems everywhere in New Jersey but everyone knows that just won’t happen”, added the Mayor.  “What’s worse, based on past history, virtually every dime will be diverted to some other project – mass transit lines no one rides, six-figure salary and consulting contracts for politically connected ‘professionals’, bike paths and other nutty politically correct ideas as well as outright diversion to the state budget.”

 

Lonegan said legislators should look at the real math.

 

“This tax increase will cost the average driver who does 20,000 miles a year in a car that gets 20 miles a gallon an extra $150 a year and that number should be doubled or tripled in families with two or three cars,” he said.  “Add to that higher prices for everything from food to appliances to beer – anything delivered by truck – and you have an inflationary spiral that will destroy jobs and our state’s economy.”

 

The Mayor also predicted that businesses along the New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware borders will suffer the most.  “Right now, Stateline businesses are struggling to survive with smokers going to other states and the Internet to buy cigarettes,” said Lonegan.  “The only thing keeping them going is out-of-state motorists crossing over to New Jersey for cheaper gas.  A gasoline tax hike would put these stores out of business completely and cost our state thousands of jobs,” he said.

 

“The only ‘winners’ under any gasoline tax increase are the big corporations who succeed by squeezing out their smaller competitors, big unions who demand outrageous wages and benefits, big lawyers and big banks who make millions in fees and commissions from bond sales and big government, whose insatiable appetite for more and more of our money is fed by this massive gasoline tax hike,” added Lonegan, who said that he would be presenting petitions to Governor McGreevey and legislators in the next ten days.

 

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