Chron Austin bureau chief's biases revealed

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Every Sunday, the Chronicle‘s Austin bureau chief takes off his “objective” newsman hat and puts on his lefty editorialist beret.

Every once in a while, it’s useful simply to point out some of the lefty editorialist’s Sunday biases and assumptions (assumptions we’re assured he puts aside the rest of the week, when he’s covering the news). His most recent column is useful in that respect. Some telling excerpts follow:

Their so-called “Gas Tax Holiday” would temporarily suspend the state gasoline tax for 90 days, in time for the summer driving season.

Why is it a “so-called” holiday, if it gives motorists a break from the tax for a set period? Does the notion of any tax rollback, however temporary, simply produce reactionary sneering from the lefty Sunday editorialist?

You may like the sound of their idea, particularly if you and your spouse drive his-and-her barns that gulp a gallon of gasoline every time you drive one around the block.

And you may like the sound of the idea if you are a lower-income person driving a Toyota Camry that gets good gas mileage. But why let that possibility intrude on sneering at SUV drivers?

But don’t get too excited because (a) the break is not going to happen, and (b) even if it did, it wouldn’t make a very big dent in your gasoline bill.

It would save you some money, 20 cents every gallon, or $4 for a 20-gallon tank, and every little bit may help. But with gasoline prices in the $3 a gallon neighborhood, that is only about 7 percent of your total fuel bill, enough for a couple of coffees with every fillup, maybe, hardly the kind of “relief” to make you want to jump and shout.

For lower-income people who don’t enjoy the salary and benefits of a Hearst bureau chief/editorialist, every little bit may indeed be important.

I am not promoting higher prices, but if more people start carpooling or, just as radical, making do with one SUV per family, we all may eventually be better off.

Since he’s opposed to temporarily lowering the state gas tax, Robison is promoting higher prices, comparatively speaking. And I get the sense the Sunday lefty editorialist really dislikes SUVs!

The Democrats say the lost money could be recouped from the $8.2 billion budgetary surplus or through federal transportation dollars.

But it is pointless to transfer funds around if, as the Democrats say and I believe, public education already is underfunded in Texas.

Some people take issue with Robison’s characterization of the potential “loss” of education funding. For my purposes, that’s simply an aside. I’m more interested in Robison’s admission that he thinks the state should spend more money on public education.

Just to recap: In this column, we have the Chronicle‘s Sunday lefty editorialist sneering at the very possibility of a temporary tax break, sneering at the possibility that it might truly represent a break for some motorists, sneering repeatedly at SUV owners, and lamenting that the state should spend more money on public education.

However, the Chronicle wants you to believe he can put those biases aside six days of the week, when he’s covering lawmakers (objectively!) in Austin on these very same sorts of issues.

Right.


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Kevin Whited is co-founder and publisher of blogHOUSTON. Follow him on twitter: @PubliusTX