INFLATION AND ROADS

Facing votes on gas tax indexing, Republican lawmakers are already finding it hard to support a tax increase, even a tiny one. Perhaps they should take a page from their colleagues in the Midwest where gas tax increases are being touted as good for business.

Last week, the House voted 115-28 to kill a bill that would have repealed the annual indexing of the state’s gas tax for inflation. The tax would increase about nine-tenths of a cent on July 1. Maine’s fuel tax is now 28.3 cents a gallon for gasoline and 28.6 cents a gallon for diesel fuel.

The 28 who voted against indexing were Republicans, many who oppose any tax increase, even one that’s been in statute for years. House Minority Leader Josh Tardy voted for the bill, but said there would be other opportunities to oppose indexing.

When those opportunities come, lawmakers must remember that without the small rise in the gas tax, Maine’s roads would be in even worse shape than they are now.

In Minnesota, trucking companies and other businesses are supporting a 5-cent boost in the state’s gas tax. “We don’t see it so much as a tax increase but as a business investment,” said David Lenzen, executive vice president of Liberty Diversified, a private company that delivers packaging material throughout the upper Midwest. “Gas prices go up and go down, but having our drivers stuck in traffic always costs us money.”

Eliminating the next inflation adjustment on the fuel tax would save drivers less than a quarter per fill up, enough for a gumball but not tax relief.

Worse, not increasing the gas tax on July 1 would leave a $20 million hole in the Department of Transportation’s budget for the next two years. The department gets money to maintain and upgrade roads from three sources: the federal government, bonds (there will be one on the November ballot) and the highway fund, which gets about three-quarters of its revenue from the gas tax. As is, the highway fund is inadequate to pay for all the road and bridge work that needs to be done. Lawmakers are looking at alternative ways to pay for road work. Ones that create new taxes or substantially raise existing ones are not acceptable.

Lawmakers should also keep in mind that Maine gets a lot out of its road spending. The state ranked 17th in terms of cost-effectiveness in 2004, according to an annual assessment of the conditions of the country’s roads and bridges by University of North Carolina at Charlotte professor David Hartgen, a Maine native.

One way the department has made do with less money is to repair roads and bridges that, in better economic times, should be replaced.

Frugality is welcome, but so is road investment.