Wow! I got great feedback – pro and con, and on-line and in conversation—on my last blog about boosting the Maryland gas tax to raise much needed funds for our state’s infrastructure. I suggested ways to find expense cuts as well. The purpose was not only to close the budget gap, but to help fight terrorism.

This week I heard Richard Foltin, legislative director and counsel for the American Jewish Committee’s Office of Government and International Affair, speak at the Associated.

His message: the importance of reducing oil consumption.

His premise: the greater the demand for oil on the global market, the more money flows in the coffers of terrorist states.

How can Maryland help? We should raise the state tax on gasoline by another 10 cents per gallon. That will help Israel and the United States fight terrorism because oil consumption will decline, lower the price of oil, and reduce revenue for Iran and Saudi Arabia. Not sure we need to do this. Well, in addition to the environmental gain, consider this: Soon we’ll have spent $1.6 trillion or $16,000 per family on the failed War in Iraq, which started in part because of our oil dependence.

What will this do to working class Marylanders? If the average person drives 15,000 miles per year and gets 20 miles per gallon, a 10-cent hike would cost them $75 a year.  It’s yet another burden, but we have to take dramatic moves to lower our gas addiction.

Recently I also met with business and civic leaders who gathered to discuss the budget situation with State Comptroller Peter Franchot. One, a state Republican close to former Gov. Robert Ehrlich, told me that Maryland hasn’t raised its gas tax in a decade, but costs go up every year to maintain our roads and our mass transit system.

We need this additional tax – up from 23 to 33 cents per gallon – to encourage buyers to purchase more efficient cars and to take public transportation. That will reduce our oil dependence and properly fund our state. An important by product will be keeping the U.S. and Israel safer as terrorist nations take in less revenue. Then they can’t continue to support terror.

Don’t think of it as a gas tax; it’s War Against Terror fee.