Newly re-elected GOP Governor wants to RAISE Gas Tax..wait, what?

That's right folks, just two days after winning a new 4-year term as Governor of the State of Iowa, Terry Branstad has proposed raising the state's gasoline tax..

Branstad: Transportation funding will be priority in 2015- Des Moines Register

Now a Republican proposing a tax INCREASE may sound a bit counter-intuitive, but Governor Branstad's reasons for such a tax are something most folks care about: better roads and bridges.

And while a lot of folks in Iowa will likely be very happy to have better roads, I wonder if the Governor may have slightly over-estimated how smoothly this will go over with Iowans as a whole.



Already some chatter about the topic has cropped up on Twitter, from two-time Libertarian candidate for Iowa Secretary of State, Jake Porter:

How much resistance Governor Branstad will find among Iowans (let alone the Iowa Legislature), is hard to gauge in my opinion.

Like anywhere else in the country, gas prices are something nearly ALL Iowans seem to enjoy complaining about how (I should know, I used to work for one of the major convenience store chains back home)..

But then again, many of Iowa's roadways and bridges are not exactly what one would call "smooth". In fact, many in the part of Iowa I grew up in are downright terrible (unless of course your local highway leads to a major population center such as Des Moines)..

I personally have to give kudos to Governor Branstad for wasting no time at all in proposing such a potentially problematic policy after coasting to an easy re-election Tuesday night.

Bold? Yes.

Foolhardy? We'll have to get back to you on that one..

DISCLAIMER:

All comments and/or opinions expressed in the above work are purely those of the author unless otherwise noted and do not represent that opinions/positions of any political or non-political organization or the Department of the Defense. Any/all distribution of this work MUST contain this disclaimer.