Senate Oks Highway Bill, 18-17 $34 Million Improvement Package Raises Gas Taxes, Registration Fees

The Senate voted 18-17 on Wednesday in favor of the $34 million highway improvement package that raises fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees.

The legislation now goes to Gov. Phil Batt, who has said he will sign it.

The bill raises fuel taxes 4 cents a gallon to 25 cents and registration fees an average of just under $6 a vehicle. The increased tax takes effect April 1 to raise an extra $6 million needed to match federal money for flood-damaged roads in North Idaho.

The $34 million raised by the package each year after that will be divided equally between the state and local road projects in a move experts said was needed to check the deterioration of the state’s 30,000 lane-miles of pavement and bridges.

“There’s never a good time to raise anything,” Democratic floor leader Bruce Sweeney of Lewiston said. “But the fact is we need the money.”

An assessment made last year estimated the backlog of needed state road projects at over $4 billion, and another $2 billion to $3 billion in work has backed up on local roads. More than 40 percent of the lane miles are considered to be in poor condition or worse.

Regardless of the need, disputed by some, opponents said the public would not accept the higher user fees, and Taxation Committee Chairman Jerry Thorne, R-Nampa, warned that voters would not forget.

“It’s going to be a tax increase you’ll have a hard time hiding when you get home,” Thorne said. “Where in the world are those Republican candidates … who promised in their campaigns they would rein in the budget and oppose tax increases.”

The increase is the first since 1991, when the tax was raised from 18 to 21 cents a gallon, and supporters argued that it would cost the average motorist less than $50 a year.

Overall, Transportation Chairman Evan Frasure, R-Pocatello, maintained the user fee cost of operating a vehicle in Idaho still would be less than half the national average of $500. He said the tax actually would have to be raised to 49 cents a gallon to give the state the same buying power it had from highway user fee revenues in 1978.

Compared with the border states, Idaho’s fuel tax now will go from lower than all but two - Utah at 19 cents and Wyoming at 9 cents - to higher than all but one - Montana at 27 cents. Washington’s tax is 23 cents while Oregon and Nevada charge 24 cents.

, DataTimes