Thanks to plunging recessionary demand gas prices head under $3a gallon -- bring back our SUVs and forget all that talk aboutalternative energy sources. In fact, given what happened almost 30years ago, if energy prices were to keep going down, fervor couldquickly abate for conservation and driving less.
Actually, now is the time to raise the federal gas tax 25 centsa gallon. Raise taxes! How outrageous when everyone has beenwracked by the financial meltdown. Will it happen? Very unlikelygiven the political wave of bailouts, rescues, and tax givebackspushing up our national debt to increasingly stratosphericlevels.
But raising the gas tax would help on three essential fronts,providing short and long-term solutions to problems facing thecountry: (1) raise money to create jobs and repair our agingtransport systems, (2) build new 21st century infrastructure thatis necessary for keeping the nation competitive, and (3) restrainnotions that we can slip back and do nothing about our energydependency.
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Jonathan D. Miller
A marketing communication strategist who turned to real estate analysis, Jonathan D. Miller is a foremost interpreter of 21st citistate futures – cities and suburbs alike – seen through the lens of lifestyles and market realities. For more than 20 years (1992-2013), Miller authored Emerging Trends in Real Estate, the leading commercial real estate industry outlook report, published annually by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has lectures frequently on trends in real estate, including the future of America's major 24-hour urban centers and sprawling suburbs. He also has been author of ULI’s annual forecasts on infrastructure and its What’s Next? series of forecasts. On a weekly basis, he writes the Trendczar blog for GlobeStreet.com, the real estate news website. Outside his published forecasting work, Miller is a prominent communications/institutional investor-marketing strategist and partner in Miller Ryan LLC, helping corporate clients develop and execute branding and communications programs. He led the re-branding of GMAC Commercial Mortgage to Capmark Financial Group Inc. and he was part of the management team that helped build Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Inc. (subsequently Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc.) into the leading real estate advisor to pension funds and other real institutional investors. He joined the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. in 1981, moving to Equitable Real Estate in 1984 as head of Corporate/Marketing Communications. In the 1980's he managed relations for several of the country's most prominent real estate developments including New York's Trump Tower and the Equitable Center. Earlier in his career, Miller was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers. He is a member of the Citistates Group and a board member of NYC Outward Bound Schools and the Center for Employment Opportunities.
