Editorial: Gas tax is the best way to raise road funds
Published 12:00 am Monday, December 13, 2004
Minnesotans have received some pretty ominous predictions about the future of their roads and highways.
For starters, transportation officials say the state needs $38.1 billion for road construction and maintenance of existing roads between 2008 and 2030. Yet under existing formulas, the state probably will receive just $14.5 billion.
So, what happens to Minnesota’s highways if these predictions are anywhere near accurate? Robert Winter, Department of Transportation district operations director, told the Minnesota Transportation Alliance that &uot;we’re at a crossroads. We can either raise money and spend it and let you build roads and highways or we can go back to the Stone Age.&uot;
Whew. Where’s Fred Flintstone when you need him?
Transportation bureaucrats and their friends in the road-construction industry are notoriously pessimistic about road-funding prospects whenever the Legislature assembles, but most lawmakers and others &045; even those with some detachment &045; agree that something needs to be done to increase transportation funding in Minnesota.
And that something always focuses on the gas tax. Minnesota’s 20-cents-per-gallon gas tax hasn’t been raised since 1988 &045; the Stone Age itself in terms of public policy and needs.
Lawmakers on transportation committees, Democrats and Republicans, are planning to introduce bills calling for a gas-tax increase. How much? A nickel has been mentioned.
However, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is sticking to his pledge not to increase any taxes, has said a higher gas tax is not the best way to pay for transportation.
Well then, what is? A gas tax is a user fee for highways. If Pawlenty has a plan for maintaining and improving Minnesota’s transportation system without raising the gas tax, let him outline it, giving specifics for lawmakers as well as Minnesotans who are growing increasingly frustrated with lack of progress in such areas.
Minnesota can’t simply remain static while some of its leaders, influenced by powerful anti-tax interests, live up to old pledges.
(Duluth News Tribune)