Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and three county executives went to Annapolis yesterday to support a proposed 10-cent-per-gallon increase in the gas tax, as long as the money goes to local jurisdictions and isn’t used to balance the budget.

My take on it, in 8 easy pieces:

1- It will hurt the economy -The plunging stock market has already delivered its response to the recent rise in gas prices.

2. It will not produce real job growth – Last year’s multi-billion stimulus windfall for “shovel ready” road projects has been widely recognized as a failure at leading to a sustainable jobs recovery.

3 – The city really isn’t concerned about filling potholes – They used millions from last year’s national stimulus windfall to prepare downtown streets for this year’s Grand Prix.

4 – The city really isn’t concerned with the long-run – Those same downtown streets, Pratt and Light, were previously supposed to be part of a larger long-range development plan to be transformed into more livable and pedestrian-scaled streets, instead of being prepared for 150 mph race cars.

5 – The state isn’t concerned with potholes either – They’d rather spend billions on the InterCounty connector, the Interstate 95 widening and big bucks rail transit projects than on maintaining the existing road system and making our mass transit work as a real system.

6 – The proposed transportation funding “firewall” is really an assault on education and other state funding – The Mayor, suburban county executives, the construction lobby and other special interests are proposing that  the funding allocation needs for roads versus schools and other budget items should no longer be weighed against each other, and that the road interests should “get theirs” regardless of other budget priorities.

7 – The Governor has relinquished his leadership role – Instead of taking a definite position on transportation funding as the leading statewide elected office holder, he is hiding behind his “blue ribbon” special interest committee and the coalition of the mayor and three suburban county executives.

8 – National leadership is also lacking – The current turmoil in Africa and the Middle East once again points to the desperate need for the U.S. to protect itself from its severe reliance on oil imports from despotic dictators, which along with the runaway trade deficit in general, is what is really ruining our economy. By far the fastest and surest way to reduce the impact of foreign oil is a large increase in the national gas tax aimed at reducing demand, linked to other tax reductions to neutralize the effect on the economy overall, and thus create a new firmer foundation for future economic growth.