DALLAS – Wisconsin and Oregon are the latest states scrambling to fund road and bridge projects while federal funding stagnates and gasoline tax revenues fail to keep pace with state needs.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Monday slammed a transportation funding plan proposed by Republicans in the General Assembly that would extend the state’s sales tax to gasoline and direct state officials to seek federal approval to toll Wisconsin’s interstate highways.
The road plan outlined last week by Rep. Dale Kooyenga would cut the state’s gasoline tax but apply the state's sales tax to gasoline for an effective tax hike of about 7 cents per gallon. It would also reduce plans for new road bonds to $300 million over two years instead of the $500 million of road bonds in Walker’s budget proposal.
The legislative plan would reduce the state gasoline tax of 30.9 cents per gallon by 4.8 cents but extend Wisconsin's 5% sales tax to gasoline at the pump. The changes would raise the state tax on a gallon of gasoline by 7 cents per gallon at current prices, according to an estimate from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
The result would be a net revenue increase of $380 million over the next two fiscal years, the auditors said.
"Call it what you will," Walker said at a Republican event in Milwaukee. "If you’re paying more on the gas that you pay at the pump, that is a gas tax increase."
In Oregon, the legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation Preservation will meet Wednesday to discuss a 10-year proposal that could bring in $5 billion for state and local roads through a gasoline tax increase of almost 50%.
The Oregon proposal calls for an immediate increase of 6 cents per gallon in the gasoline tax of 30 cents per gallon, with another 8 cents phased in over 10 years.
The proposal includes a statewide 0.1% payroll tax for public transit and increased registration fees for fuel-efficient vehicles.
The higher taxes would generate $2.5 billion for Oregon roads over 10 years as well as $1.5 billion for counties and $1 billion for cities, proponents said.
Two-thirds of the states have stepped up highway funding over the past five years, with at least two dozen states raising gasoline or fuel sales taxes to pay for road and bridge projects, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.
Voters approved 269 of the 361 transportation funding measures on the ballot in 2016, ARTBA said.
Twelve states have imposed additional registration fees for electric or hybrid vehicles to slow the decline in gasoline tax revenues, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
California and Tennessee imposed the fees within the last month, joining Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming. The annual fees range from $50 to $200.
The Wisconsin road plan endorsed by the Republican majority in the General Assembly would raise taxes by $430 million over the next two years but identifies no projects that would be funded by the higher taxes, Walker said.
"I think a lot of people sort of scratched their head and said, 'I thought the whole debate was about having to have more road projects,’ ” Walker said.
Rep. Jim Steineke, the Republican majority leader in the Assembly, used Twitter to fire back at Walker.
"Lead, follow, or get the heck out of the way," he tweeted. "The Assembly GOP has made its choice."
The Joint Finance Committee in April dismissed Walker’s $6.1 billion, two-year transportation budget that included $500 million of new debt for road projects in favor of a legislative proposal.
The Democratic minority in the General Assembly and state Senate rejected the Republican road plan and instead asked for creation of a new joint committee dedicated to transportation funding.
"This [committee] is a way forward to actually try to come together to solve something that, economically, is of vital importance to the state," said Rep. Peter Barca, the Democratic leader in the Assembly. "There's no question we're stuck in neutral and just not moving forward."
The GOP road plan is “just a complete non-starter," Barca said.
