Steny Hoyer

D.C.’s bean counters and voting rights advocates had something to hope for last week, after Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said that he’d be open to a discussing a possible D.C. commuter tax with which city officials could finally tax all those folks who make money here but live in Virginia or Maryland.

The local backlash has already begun, though—the Post reports today that Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has all but said that there’s no way in hell that a commuter tax is going to happen. That he said so isn’t surprising—congressional representatives from surrounding districts don’t want to know that their constituents are getting slapped with another tax—but rather the words that he used:

“This is a unique area of the country. This is a government town, that’s its industry, that’s what supports it,” Hoyer told reporters Wednesday. “Frankly, a lot of people live in the suburbs because they can’t afford to live in the District of Columbia – including police, fire, other personnel.”

Hoyer said a commuter tax isn’t necessary, because “everybody in America pays to support the District of Columbia, everybody pays that because it’s the capital of the United States of America. That’s the appropriate way to fund it.”

It’s true—everyone in America kicks in a bit to support D.C. Then again, everyone in America kicks in a bit to support a lot of states—all told, eight states receive the same or more federal money as a percentage of their total budgets than D.C. does.

Additionally, Hoyer somewhat misses the larger point. D.C. officials aren’t constantly begging for a commuter tax because they’re all spend-thrift liberals looking to screw the suburban working man (and woman), but rather because a commuter tax would help serve as a balance against the fact that D.C. can’t tax a huge chunk of the land within its borders. (Nor can it build anything over 130 feet, another gripe of local officials.) All told, this structural imbalance in D.C.’s budget costs over $1 billion a year.

That being said, Hoyer has generally been a strong supporter of D.C. voting rights. And yes, he needs to represent the interests of his constituents. If he wants to push Congress to spend more money to cover D.C.’s existing budget imbalance, great. But he shouldn’t oppose talking about the commuter tax—and also why D.C. officials consistently think they could use it.