All kinds of cars pull in to Irving Gas in Brighton, but when you ask drivers like Adam Barisano about rolling back the gas tax, most say they'd vote to repeal it.
"It's unquestionably, completely high," said Barisano, who lives in Scituate and commutes about 60 miles a day.
But Barisano may want to hold his horses. Question One wouldn’t get rid of the state's gas tax; it would simply roll back the increases approved last year by the legislature.
Outside his Watertown house recently, Steve Aylward, who leads the grassroots effort to pass Question One, loaded "Yes on One" signs into his Toyota pickup. Aleward said the driving force behind this ballot question wasn't money but the automatic increases that would happen as inflation rises.
"We don’t want to set a precedent," he said. "That’s one of the reasons we’re fighting."
State Rep. David Linksy, a Democrat from Natick, voted in favor of the new gas tax because it would fund repairs to roads and bridges, like the 100-year-old Marion Street bridge in his hometown that's been closed for two years after failing a safety inspection.
"Massachusetts has hundred of bridges that need to be repaired or replaced," he said. "Before the state would commit to replacing this bridge, they needed to find the money to do it. It’s several million dollars to do, and unless there’s enough money in the transportation fund, which comes from the gas tax, they can’t do every bridge."
But back in Watertown, Aylward said tax hikes—to pay for anything—shouldn’t be automatic, but instead put to a vote. He said Question One is about making lawmakers accountable.
"The primary job that they’re supposed to do is assess the finances and raise taxes or lower taxes according to the economic condition of the time," he said. "I think that anybody who doesn’t want to take the vote and wants it be automatic is not fit to be in the office."
Though Representative Linksy acknowledged the legislature could vote on the tax annually, he said the need was critical and the automated gas tax hike would be a small price to pay.
"When you’re looking at the amount of money this indexing is, it’s literally a couple of dollar a year per driver," he said. "That’s all this question talking about, and quite frankly, we need to make sure we have the money available to fix bridges."
There’s no bridging the different points of view. When it comes to Ballot Question One and the fate of state’s automatic gas tax hike, voters will have to pick a side.
Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll , who opposes the repeal, and State Rep. Geoff Diehl , who supports it, presented their sides on Greater Boston:
