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Still worrying about $4 gasoline? Come on, get your head in the game. The nation’s leading worriers have moved way beyond that.

As Republican Sen. Jeff Angelo predicted last week at a Drake University forum that “the table is being set for a gas tax increase” he mentioned that he has heard talk about prices hitting $8 or more per gallon. His point was that Iowans won’t be happy with a gas tax increase if prices reach that level, but it was kind of hard to focus on five cents’ worth of taxes after he said “$8.”

Actually, it was hard to hear for a few seconds. It makes a lot of noise when 30 people all faint and topple out of their chairs at the same moment.

Hey, if we’re ever charged $8 per gallon, you can set the tax wherever you want it, because we’ll all be working from home and using our cars for storage. Instead of driving to the store, we’ll be living on dandelion greens and whatever that stuff is in the back of the freezer.

But Angelo’s larger point was that fiscal matters are among the issues left unresolved by the 2008 Legislature, along with illegal immigration and “how much are we going to run the state from Des Moines and take away powers from local communities?”

“I hope you guys do run on fiscal responsibility,” said Democratic Sen. Mike Gronstal, “because we can bury you.” Unfortunately for the photographers in the room, he neglected to take off his shoe and pound it on the table at this point, Nikita Khrushchev-style.

The panel consisted of Angelo, Gronstal, Republican Rep. Kraig Paulsen and Democratic Rep. Kevin McCarthy, and the event was presented by Drake and IowaPolitics.com. Here’s some of what they discussed.

• Paulsen said of SILO, the statewide sales tax enacted by the Legislature: “There’s no other way to say it; it is a tax increase. We’re taking the decision away from local communities and making it permanent, and adding a use tax that wasn’t there before.”

Gronstal disputed the “no other way to say it” contention by saying it this way: “Some people might not like that we’re migrating to sales tax and away from property tax, but it’s a tax shift, not an increase.”

The money is to go toward education infrastructure, and Gronstal accused the Baby Boomer generation of being “the worst in the history of the state at building buildings for our children. They did better during the Great Depression.”

Yeah, but we’ve provided nicer sports equipment.

• When asked by an audience member why the Legislature didn’t pass an improvement of the Iowa Open Meetings Act, the answer was that they ran out of time. Oh, it was a great bill, they said. Wonderful stuff. A little complex, maybe. If only we had more time.

Gronstal did note that some local governments are afraid a wide-open system would make it too easy for people “with an ax to grind” to get access. It’s true, the world is well-stocked with single-issue wackos. Maybe we need to rethink this whole “freedom of speech” thing.

• The ban on smoking makes Paulsen wonder “how we’ll move forward on implementation.” Holy cow, is he suggesting that some bars will simply ignore the state law? Which reminds me, do we have any laws against littering?

McCarthy predicted that the next general session will see “an all-out effort by health advocates” to ban smoking in casinos. The casinos stayed off the hook this time because … well, we wish we had time to explain that.

• On the subject of state politics, Gronstal suggested that House Minority leader Christopher Rants is “in trouble” and “on his way out.” He also questioned whether Ron Wieck will remain the Senate minority leader.

Angelo immediately leapt to the defense of … Wieck. Just Wieck.