Roads, bridges falling down

Gov. Angus King will meet with plenty of opposition to his proposed 5-cent increase in the gas tax, which is to be expected. Politicians are aware that no one likes a tax increase of any kind, so when one is offered there’s certain to be lawmakers who will act as if government should run without cost, although they would never operate their own businesses that way.

The state gas tax has stood at 19 cents since 1991, when it was increased 2 cents, temporarily, during the recession. The 2 cents — no surprise — never was removed and now, eight years later, should not be. There’s hardly a person in Maine who thinks the roads should be allowed to get worse. Improving or even maintaining them, however, will take money. The governor is proposing the radical idea that the people who use the roads pay for them.

Democrats said they want to think about the governor’s plan. But Republicans have already made several suggestions of their own to meet the expected $56 million shortfall in road repair during the next two-year budget cycle. One valuable idea was to use part of the General Fund surplus — estimated at $135 million — to cover the shortage in the Highway Fund. That plan has the advantage of drawing from the progressive income tax vs. a flat per-gallon tax, but also comes with a couple of problems.

For instance, the money shifted to the Highway Fund cannot also be used for tax relief, and General Fund revenues are not as reliable as the gas tax — reliability is needed to leverage the $200 million in federal highway dollars awaiting a state match. The GOP, more often the pay-as-you-go party, would further have to make the case that it is better to use income-tax dollars instead gas-tax dollars to repair roads and bridges.

Similarly, Republicans have suggested removing from the Highway Fund the $38 million cost of paying for state troopers, arguing that the troopers are a non-transportation cost that do not belong in the fund. There is the counter argument that ensuring the safety of the highways is very much a transportation cost, but it doesn’t really matter because the troopers have to be paid for some way, either through the Highway or General funds. The question is whether you want the money to come out of your left pocket or your right pocket.

The GOP also wondered whether the state’s settlement with the tobacco industry could be used to pay for roads. But with approximately 180,000 Maine people without health care and the state’s highest-in-the-nation teen-age smoking rate, the suggestion doesn’t merit attention.

Two other points to consider. There was a charge recently that the gas tax fell more heavily on the rural areas — which are said to depend more on cars and trucks — than on urban areas. But, if anything, the reverse is true, though slight. The average Aroostook County resident in 1997 drove 9,762 miles; the average York County resident, 10,337 miles, according to figures from the State Planning Office. Closer to home, people in Pistcataquis County traveled 10,181 miles, while in more densely populated Penobscot County, they drove 10,876 miles annually.

Second, a 5-cent increase in the gas tax for a vehicle that gets 20 miles per gallon and is driven 10,000 miles per year comes to $25. Just because this is a low figure is no reason to simply pass the tax, but as tempers shorten in Augusta and legislators prepare to fall on their swords over this issue, it may be useful to consider the size of the tax increase — the annual addition is equal to approximately one month of cable TV service.

A 5-cent increase in the gas tax is a modest plan to maintain an infrastructure especially important in rural Maine; it’s a fairly reliable source of revenue to leverage federal funds, and it requires the people who use the roads the most to pay the most. As tax increases go, it could be worse.