In the early 1990s, I was working at a factory in Rochester, and although the hourly wage was relatively low, my co-workers and I were able to work a substantial amount of overtime.

One day our employer informed us that there would not be any overtime available until further notice. Some employees were upset because they had been getting overtime for so long that they had based their budget on it, Even though our employer did not guarantee overtime. Other employees had saved the extra money and were ready for the "rainy day." I think we all can agree that the responsible people were the ones who realized that the overtime income was temporary.

This brings me to the real subject of this column, government income from gasoline taxes. Some people see the call for an elimination of the gas tax over the summer as just another election year ploy or say that it will not solve the long-term problem. Frankly, I do not think anybody is stupid enough to believe that a gas tax holiday will send oil prices plummeting, but I think we can all agree that oil and gas prices will eventually come down. When that happens all of the government entities that have become accustomed to the additional revenue will be facing a budget crisis along the lines of the employees who base their budget on overtime.

My argument for a gas tax holiday is not based on the amount of money tax payers will save immediately, it is based on the idea that I do not think that the government should be given any more money to waste than they have already. The Orleans County government serves as the perfect example of my theory. Their sales tax revenue has increased by over $3 million dollars in that last three years and yet Orleans County property tax rates continue to rise significantly. It makes you wonder where all this money is going.

Since the gas tax is based on a percentage, it actually helps our local government when the price of gas goes up and so they have no reason to address the situation when they are benefiting from it. A recent quote from Orleans County Chairperson Henry Smith Jr. proves my point. In discussing the gas tax revenue he was quoted as saying, "It helps out our local merchants. Why would you want to go all the way to Rochester to buy gas, when you can get it right here?”

Call me stupid, but I fail to see how local merchants are making money off the sale of gasoline. The last I checked, corporations owned most gas stations and those that are not owned by corporations do not make a lot of money off the sale of gasoline. I suppose you could argue that gas stations and convenience stores create many low paying jobs without benefits, but I fail to see how that helps anyone.

Dave Callard's argument against temporary gas tax abatement is even more perplexing. Callard reportedly said that the loss in revenue would have to be made up elsewhere in the form of increased property taxes. Am I to believe that the same county government that "traditionally under budgets" sales tax revenue predicted the spike in gas prices? In addition, if an increase in sales tax revenue has not resulted in a property tax decrease, should Callard's dire warning really worry me?
Heck, I will bet Callard a tank of gas that even without the gas tax abatement county property taxes go up anyway.