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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Senate Panel Kills Boost For Fuel Tax Narrow Vote Stops Plan To Raise Funds For Road, Bridge Repairs

Associated Press

House-passed legislation raising state fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees to pump millions of dollars into Idaho’s deteriorating highway system was killed on Tuesday by a Senate committee.

“I represent people who barely have enough gas to get to work and back and just don’t feel comfortable putting a tax in,” Democratic Sen. Lin Whitworth of Inkom said. “Payday to payday, they barely make it, and I’m going to ask them to pay more taxes when this Legislature won’t do a thing to help these people improve themselves.”

Whitworth joined four Republicans on the Transportation Committee to defeat by one vote the legislation boosting the fuel tax four cents a gallon to 25 cents and raising registration fees an average of just under $6 a year.

“I think you have an extremely irresponsible situation here,” said Chairman Evan Frasure of Pocatello, who had backed the legislation.

But Republican Gov. Phil Batt, who had endorsed the proposal and made it one of his priorities this session, remained hopeful.

“The fact four voted for it indicates there’s an interest,” Batt said only moments after the 5-4 vote. “I hope they come back with another proposition.”

Jeopardized by the action was $6 million in federal matching funds for repairing roads in North Idaho damaged by the recent flooding. That cash was being raised by imposing the higher fuel tax in April, three months earlier than planned.

Democrat Bruce Sweeney of Lewiston said the matching money would be secured, but without the higher tax it would simply be siphoned from other projects.

There was no immediate indication about what tack, if any, fuel tax supporters intended to take. There were indications that the House would counter by approving just the fuel tax increases without any change in registration fees.

But even that could face problems in the Senate committee.

“My voters sent me over here to vote ‘No’ on tax increases, and I’m not going to do anything to compromise my principles,” Nampa Republican Jerry Thorne said flatly.

The vote came after an hour-long hearing that produced no public opposition.

House Transportation Chairman JoAn Wood, R-Rigby, questioned the validity of an alternative to the rejected package she said contained a balanced, equitable approach. House Speaker Michael Simpson said options would be assessed as the session moves toward adjournment.

Facing more than $4 billion in backlogged road maintenance and construction and 41 percent of lane mileage considered in poor or worse condition, a special legislative committee came up with the $34 million package after hearings across the state last summer and fall.

All the money had to go for pavement, bridges or railroad crossings so motorists could see the impact of every cent, and to blunt opposition the bill gives cities, counties and highway districts half the proceeds instead of the traditional 36 percent.

Supporters argued that improved fuel efficiency and inflation have so eroded the buying power of the fuel tax that today the tax would have to be 31 cents a gallon instead of 21 cents to have the same impact on road work as it did in 1978. They also pointed out that the tax hike translated into only $30 a year on a car driven 15,000 miles at an average of 20 miles a gallon.

“This is a very modest proposal,” Frasure argued.

But conservative Stan Hawkins of Ucon claimed the promises being made by Transportation Department that the extra cash would reduce the percentage of poor roadway back under 20 percent in a decade echoed similar promises made to secure past fuel tax hikes but never achieved.

“It’s a deception,” he argued. “I just don’t know that another tax is the way to do.”

Voting with Thorne, Hawkins and Whitworth against the bill were Republicans Rex Furness of Rexburg and Cecil Ingram of Boise, the Agriculture Committee chairman who indicated his opposition was based on the committee’s earlier rejection of legislation to increase weights on grain trucks.

Joining Frasure and Sweeney for the measure were Republicans Gary Schroeder of Moscow and Hal Bunderson of Boise.