City gas tax proposal dies

The City Council on Monday killed a proposed 2-cents a gallon gasoline tax that would have solved no problems the city faces.

The bill, sponsored by Councilor Isaac Benton, had been pending for a year and died because councilors took no action on it.

Benton said he'll reintroduce it some time in the future because the city needs the $4.8 million a year it would generate.

But $4.8 million a year to fix streets and roads is a minuscule amount of money that might have repaved a couple of miles of streets every year. We suspect that Benton wanted the tax for other things like bike paths and street beautification.

And with city residents now paying a 7.5 percent gross receipts tax on most everything they buy here, who needs another tax?

But you can sure that in the coming months some councilors will more for an increase in the GRT to fund the push fort more police officers. Never mind the fact that the city has had a one-quarter-cent public safety GRT in place since the early 2000s.