Batt Plans To Increase Gas Tax Says Funds Are Needed For Maintenance And Construction Of Highways

Gov. Phil Batt said on Thursday that the concerns he expressed in January about the operations of the state Transportation Department are being addressed and he will probably recommend an increase in highway user fees next year.

“We can’t underfund our highways, and I think next year is the time we should take a look at it,” Batt told Boise business leaders during a midday address.

Transportation Board members, he said, “depend on a funding base that is inflationary, and if you don’t keep up with inflation, you lose buying power.

“The gas tax today will buy less than it would when it was seven cents a gallon many years ago,” said Batt, who served on the Transportation Board from mid-1988 through 1990. The fuel tax is 21 cents a gallon now.

The governor declined to say how much more money he wanted to raise for highway maintenance and construction or whether his likely proposed increase would involve the gasoline tax, vehicle registration fees or a combination of the two.

“We’re not going to ask for any more than we think is essential,” Batt said, and he conceded that any proposed increase will be difficult to get through the Legislature in the 1996 election-year session.

Idaho’s fuel tax is currently lower than four of the six surrounding states. Only Utah and Wyoming have lower gasoline taxes and both those states collect hundreds of additional dollars a year from motorists through property taxes on their vehicles - something only Idaho and Oregon do not do.

Batt indicated in his State of the State address on Jan. 9 that he believed a gas tax or registration fee increase was needed. But two days later in his budget message he backed away from any increase, setting out instead a list of concerns he said had to be addressed first. They involved the responsiveness of the board, the need for the aviation division and the efficiency of the department itself.

Legislative expansion of the board from three to seven members went a long way to easing his concerns, Batt said, and the aviation division is under formal review.

Department officials tested the water this winter on a plan to raise $20 million in additional highway revenues - probably by increasing the gas tax by another three cents.

Each penny raises about $6.8 million dollars a year with about 60 percent of the money going to the state and 35 percent to local governments. To build support from local governments for the deal, however, the board offered a 50-50 split on the new money.

Batt declined to endorse that kind of scheme on Thursday, saying only, “I will not prejudge what it might be.”