Ol´ McDonnell should have been the veep. The gas tax is one of the worst taxes out there because it is essentially a tax on economic activity. Go for it, McDonnell. This is also the sort of thing that drives the liberal granola trail insane, so it´s good politics. No need to shoot your mouth off about shutting down the government or that Barry is a Marxist Kenyan so and so. People respond to sanity in a world gone wrong. Lucidity is like a life raft. All abroad the USS McConnell.

Anybody in the surrounding states within a few miles of the Va. border will be flocking there to buy gas. I already go there for cheaper cigs so this will be a nice double dip on savings.

It´s kinds hard for me to believe that a less than 1% increase in sales tax will make up lost gas tax and then some but of course I don´t own a government calculator.

This will help reward drivers who mostly go to work and also take a stab at lost revenue in the underground/non working community.I like this style of thinking.

I thought the gas tax was levied to pay maintenance on roads and bridges. Who uses the roads and bridges? People who buy gas and diesel. Called User Fees.

A lot of government has disconnected from who should pay for what, instead going after who can pay, not who should pay. All Socialism.

In VA gas taxes and road tolls do pay for roads and bridges, but they also pay for trains and buses. Drivers pay for public transportation that doesn´t go where they need to go. Also, VA has pretty low car registration fees, compared to other states I´ve lived in. It is at least a creative proposal.

This is a good move. With increased US production of oil and completion of the Key Stone pipeline bringing in an additional 0.7 million bpd, gasoline could actually come down in price. Lower priced gasoline could bring in a lot of other business and lead to larger revenue to VA. That´s what we pay governors to manage.

McDonnell is a conservative Republican and veteran.

No 3 is correct. A gas tax is about as fair as you get in that if you use the roads you pay for their maintenance. Trucks in Idaho pay by the mile. The biggest problem has been that the gasoline (at least State of Idaho) taxes have not been keeping up with the cost of materials (oil, concrete, ect) and labor for the last decade. This has been due to smaller and more economical fuel usage vehicles. In addition more lane miles must be added to accommodate the increased traffic.

The result of the above is that maintenance is not done, the roads degrade then have to be dealt with with major rehabilitation or rebuilt entirely. A case of pay me now or pay me a LOT more later. I don´t know about the situation in VA (waste, fraud, abuse) but this is a problem in all States.