Today was a monumental day in the history of the Capital. The Legislature passed a 10-cent per gallon gas tax increase. The tax on gas is going up from 21-cents to 31-cents as of March 1st. This was the largest gas tax increase ever in the Legislature; making Iowa one of the highest gas tax States in the Midwest.
Let me be clear, we need to have funding to repair our roads and bridges; but, I could not support this significant amount. The new tax will bring in $213 million a year. 48% of the funds will go to the State, 20% to the cities and 32% to the Counties.
It was noted that the gas tax has not been raised since 1988. However, in 2008 we nearly doubled all vehicle registrations which brought in an extra $145 million to the road use tax fund.
The positive part of the increase is the ability to finish 4-lane HWY 20 and create funds to repave HWY 59 and other local roads that need repair.
I’m glad this vote is finished as it has consumed the discussions in the Capital for the last 2-weeks of session. Now we can hopefully move on to some tax reductions!