Article from Rocky mountain news

DNC convention committee gets its own gas-tax holiday
posted at 6:05 pm on July 22, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Remember the gas-tax holiday that Barack Obama opposed? Not all Democrats feel the same way — specifically, the Democrats responsible for staging his big party in Denver. The Rocky Mountain News reports this afternoon that the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee has used the city’s own gas pumps to fill up their cars — bypassing state and federal taxes:

The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention is using the city’s gas pumps to fill up on fuel, avoiding state and federal highway taxes, officials said today.

“There’s something there that just doesn’t seem right to me because, in a sense, you’re saying then that the officials who pass the laws are not willing to live by them, and that concerns me,” Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said.

The issue came up during the council’s weekly meeting with Mayor John Hickenlooper when the Public Works Department requested authorization to be reimbursed by the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee for use of “fueling facilities, fuel and car washes.”

“By doing it this way, by running it through our Fleet Maintenance, that means that that fuel does not pay state or federal highway taxes,” Faatz said.

Obama called McCain’s gas-tax holiday proposal “a gimmick” back in April. How would he describe the convention planners’ use of tax-free gasoline while the rest of the country pays its fair share of taxes on fuel? Maybe Obama would like to explain that while he’s talking about hiking fuel taxes to pay for investments in alternative energy sources. Will Democrats be exempt from that tax?

Mayor Hickenlooper tried to play the everyone-does-it card, telling Faatz that the RNC gets the same deal in St Paul. Well, no they don’t:

Teresa McFarland, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis-St. Paul host committee, said they’re getting their gas at the pump.

“We’re not getting a tax break on fuel,” she said. “That’s not the set-up at this end.”

Democrats taking advantage of city gas pumps save about $6 on every fillup, with taxes over 40 cents per gallon. Tax relief isn’t the only perk for the host committee, either. Car washes eat up a lot of water in a state hit by a drought, which led one councilman to ask:

“Why are we washing cars in the middle of a drought?” he asked. “Where are the green police when we need them? Are they poking around restaurants to see that nobody fries food?”

Why indeed? Weren’t Democrats practically dislocating shoulders in patting themselves on the back for their dedication to conservation at this convention? Why doesn’t the Greening Director put a stop to this? For that matter, why aren’t the Democrats driving hybrids or natural-gas vehicles?

Democrats — making sure only the peasants pay the taxes they impose.