DALLAS -- Almost all the state legislators who voted for a higher state gasoline tax last year won their 2016 primary races, according to an analysis of eight states that enacted laws to increase their state motor fuel taxes in 2015.
The analysis by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association found that 98% of the Republican and Democratic lawmakers who supported a state gasoline tax in 2015 won their primary races in 2016.
Six of the eight states that raised fuel tax rates in 2015 had Republican governors and a Republican-controlled legislature, said Dr. Alison P. Black, the chief economist at ARTBA who conducted the survey.
The concerns expressed by some conservative lawmakers that they would face a destructive primary from professional anti-tax groups opposed to increase in motor fuel taxes seem to be misplaced, Black said.
"These results should dispel any notion that voting to increase the state gas tax is politically toxic," she said.
Voters are more likely to accept gasoline tax increases if they see the results of the extra transportation funding in new projects or better upkeep of existing roads, Black said.
"Voters expect lawmakers to put forward solutions to help reduce traffic congestion, improve road safety, and help grow the economy," she said. "They are also willing to pay for these expanded investments."
More than half the states took action in 2015 to fund transportation, both through legislative action and voter referendums, ARTBA said. Those efforts paid off with more than $30 billion of new funding for roads, bridges and public transit through higher gasoline taxes, road fees, new or increased road-dedicated taxes, and bonds.
State gasoline taxes were increased in 2015 by lawmakers in Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah and Washington. Proposals for an increase in the state gasoline tax currently are pending in California and New Jersey.
A total of 231 Democratic state lawmakers in the eight states voted for a higher fuel tax, accounting for 66% of all Democrats in office at the time. Just three of the 125 of those Democrats up for re-election lost primaries while only one of the 39 anti-gas tax Democrats facing re-election lost a primary race, ARTBA said.
440 Republican state legislators in 2015, some 65% of all GOP lawmakers in office, supported higher gas taxes. Of the 293 pro-gas tax Republicans facing a primary challenge in 2016, only six lost their seats.
Nebraska lawmakers in 2015 overrode the veto of a gasoline tax increase by Gov. Pete Ricketts to raise the gasoline tax of 26.5 cents per gallon by 1.5 cents at the beginning of 2016 and by a similar amount at the first of each year through 2019. The vote in Nebraska's one-house legislature to override the veto was 48-0.
The effort by Ricketts to prevent an increase in the fuel tax was unsuccessful because voters wanted better roads, said Josh Moenning, executive director of the transportation advocacy group 4 Lanes 4 Nebraska.
"People see the need to fix the roads, which outweighed the gas tax, especially in the context of lower fuel prices," Moenning said. "State senators who were on the bubble about passing the tax or overriding the veto heard from constituents who said they were not concerned about the increase if the money replaced bad bridges and roads."
A report by ARTBA last year said that 95% of all Republican state legislators who voted to increase their state gas tax in 2013 and 2014 and sought re-election in November 2014 won their races. On the Democratic side, 88% of state legislators who voted in favor of a state gas tax were re-elected in November 2014.
