Tax plan: Weigh to go

Last time Oklahoma tried to raise the gasoline tax, it ended with a bang. Voters shot down the proposal by a wide margin. Yet extending a “temporary” tax on gas ended last week not with a bang but a whimper. Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill extending a 1-cent-per-gallon gas tax for another 10 years. The state taxes gasoline at 17 cents per gallon, of which 16 cents is an actual gas tax and the other penny a source of funding for the underground fuel storage tank program. But the fund isn’t just paying for replacement of storage tanks. It’s now buying new truck weigh stations at ports of entry around Oklahoma, something that was sorely needed. We don’t expect much more than a whimper of protest about Fallin’s OK for the gas tax extension, but the diversion of funds from their original purpose should always be weighed carefully.

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