Legislation from House Transportation Chairman Joe Palmer, R-Meridian, was introduced unanimously in the House Transportation Committee this afternoon, to hike gas taxes, car and truck registration fees, and impose other fees and taxes including new charges on electric and hybrid cars that use little gas, to raise a total of nearly $200 million a year by the end of a three-year phase-in. Palmer told the committee the bill is “basically a complete overhaul of our funding system that we currently use to fund our transportation system,” but added a “disclaimer,” saying, “I don’t think any one of us have any illusions that it’s going to be exactly the same as we get when we see it come back with a bill number on it.”

Instead, Palmer said, “They’re just ideas so that people understand what we’re looking at.” The bill approaches the issue with the aim of spreading the $200 million increase over everyone in the state, Palmer said. “I definitely expect more legislation to come out of other committees,” he said.

Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, asked, “Who will be at the table to discuss some of the pieces of this?” Palmer responded, “We’re all at the table. I think that if you go around and ask any member of this legislature ... I think everyone needs to be at the table. It’s a pretty important issue.” Rep. Jason Monks, R-Meridian, said, “Normally I would advocate for not printing bad pieces of legislation, but I understand the purpose of this is to get these ideas out there so that we can actually discuss these.” He moved to introduce the bill, and the motion passed unanimously.

The bill calls for a gas tax hike next year of 8 cents per gallon, plus 12 cents a gallon on diesel, followed by another 1 cent increase each year on both until either the Legislature or the governor calls a halt. It calls for tripling a transfer fee on fuel from the current 1 cent to 3 cents per gallon; raising registration fees on cars by 50 percent and on commercial trucks by 25 percent; and raising trip permits and over-legal permits for trucks by 50 percent. It calls for a $140-a-year extra registration fee for electric cars and $75 for hybrid cars; and for shifting $22 million from sales tax revenues, which now go to the state's general fund, to road funds. The gas and diesel tax increases would raise $100.5 million a year by the third year; the transfer fee hike, $34.6 million; the registration and permit fee increases, $38.5 million; the electric and hybrid car fees, $641,030; and the shift from the general fund $22 million.