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Show 9 FROM SHEEP TO . WOLF It is reported that higher gas taxes tax-es are being sought in about half of the 44 states whose legislatures meet this year. This is one problem that should find the oil Industry and the motorist motor-ist in perfect accord. The gas tax has unquestionably been a good thing in that It has helped build highways but a good thing can be done to death. And that Is exactly what Is happening to the gas tax. Government expenses are constantly con-stantly on the rise. Property owners, security owners, businesses, buildersall build-ersall are staggering beneath a weight of taxes. As a result, many legislators get the bright idea that another cent on the gas tax will raise revenue without, at the same time, causing public revolt. This may have been true In the past, but the revolt has come. A tax which amounts to twenty or thirty per cent, of the price of a product Is almost confiscatory, and In addition ad-dition an increasing numler of states have used the gas tax for purposes, other than roads. The motorist, mo-torist, once a sheep, is rapidly turning turn-ing into a wolf, with his eye on the legislators who are advocating higher gas taxes. Drastic action is necessary, Vie-fore, Vie-fore, as one writer says, "You will hear some gaoot of an office holder telling how he has 'reduced taxes,' meaning that he has stolen so much from the gasoline tax fund that the general property taxes were not needed that year." |