Mitt Romney: Raising Gas Prices on Massachusetts through Back Door Double Speak

CANDIDATE ROMNEY PROMISES NOT TO RAISE GAS HIKES

Campaigning for governor in 2002, Romney opposed raising gas taxes "A spokesman for Republican candidate Mitt Romney said yesterday that Romney feels the toll increase is unfair, but that he also is opposed to any hike in the gas tax. Romney will release his recommendations on the issue [of how to fund transportation] in the next 60 days, said spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom." (Boston Globe, 6/11/02)

ONCE IN OFFICE, GOVERNOR ROMNEY RAISED THE GAS FEE 400%

As Governor, Romney raised the gas tax, albeit in an indirect way [E]very consumer who drives a car and fills a prescription with any regularity is about to take a hit, unless there is a breakout of soul searching at the State House. Bay State motorists have quietly been forced to swallow a 2-cent hike in the gas tax since April, after the Romney administration signed off on a 400 percent increase in an obscure petroleum cleanup fund. Last week, the House and Senate killed the fund as part of their budget plan. But the $ 60 million in annual revenue will keep flowing into state coffers, just like black gold from a geyser. (Cosmo Macero, Jr., This Isnt How No New Taxes Should Feel, Boston Herald, 6/27/03) By anyones definition, thats a gas tax Now, by anyones definition, this is a tax. This is treated as a tax and collected as a tax and passed down to consumers like a tax. (Stephen Dodge of the Massachusetts Petroleum Council, quoted in the Boston Herald 6/27/03) "'Romney dumped [the money] into a stabilization fund which they could pretty much use at their disposal,' says one observer. (Cosmo Macero, Jr., Despite pledge, the state is pumping us for a new tax, The Boston Herald, 4/25/03)

AFTER HIKING GAS FEES, GOVERNOR ROMNEY ELMINATED THE DEDICATED FUND, DIRECTING THE NEW REVENUE INTO THE GENERAL FUND
Recent news reports describe Romneys backhanded gas tax "[J]ust weeks after then-Gov. Mitt Romney got an increase in the fee, he eliminated the fund, sending the tens of millions of dollars promised for environmental cleanup instead into the general fund." (Fox Boston story, 2/2/12, posted at http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/undercover/casinos-to-pay-forcompulsive-gambling-help-but-will-beacon-hill-keep-the-money-safe-20120202 ) Romney quintupled the tax "In April 2003, the Romney administration quintupled the tax to 2.5 cents per gallon. But when the fee was raised, the dedicated fund was eliminated and the tax receipts were deposited into the state's general fund. That allowed the governor and legislators to spend them however they wanted." (AP, 9/17/10)

The Boston Globe explained the "fee" last April when covering a Romney campaign stop at a NH gas station [A] 2-cent-per-gallon increase in a gasoline fee that was implemented in 2003 the Bay State when Romney was governor. The special fee, assessed on gasoline companies and aimed at cleaning up contamination around underground fuel storage tanks, was raised from 0.5 cents per gallon to 2.5 cents per gallon." (Boston Globe, 4/29/11, http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2011/04/nh_dems_ preempt.html)

WHAT DOES CANDIDATE ROMNEY NOW SAY ABOUT HIS GAS HIKE?
Romney insists it was not a gas tax But it was not an increase in the gasoline tax, Romney said, just a cost of doing business. (Union Leader, 4/29/11) Romney's defense when asked by reporters about the tax in April 2011: It was a cost of doing business "One of the costs of doing business in an establishment like this is the cost of leakage contamination in the soil, from the tanks," [Romney] said. "And in Massachusetts the state pays for remediating some of those sites, and so there is a fee charged to service stations for the remediation of leaking tanks. And thats part of the cost of doing business." (Boston Globe, 4/29/11) Romneys spokesman sticks to the distortion Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney spokesman, says Romney "didn't raise the gas tax." (Politico, 4/28/11)