Revenue would go toward building multilane highways
JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau | Posted: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - The Joint Revenue Committee of the Wyoming Legislature will work on draft legislation to impose a nickel-per-gallon increase in fuels taxes to help pay for a multilane highway system.
The committee has asked for a draft bill for a $100 million-a-year package to include $50 million from the nickel fuel tax increase with no exemptions, and $50 million per year from the state's general fund.
The committee has been charged with finding money to finance a multilane highway system.
The plan is already facing opposition from some members of the committee itself and from the governor's office.
"God bless them, and no, I don't support it," Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Monday. "I don't see any change in my position at all."
People are not happy with gasoline prices and taxes now, although they are not as upset as he thought they would be, he said.
The governor said earlier he could not support the tax without a show of more public support.
The Legislature last winter started the highway upgrading process by allocating $7 million to the Wyoming Department of Transportation for engineering and construction of multilane highways. The new law prohibits using any money for any part of the federal interstate highway system.
"It was just the beginning of the discussion, I think," Sen. Jayne Mockler, D-Cheyenne, a committee member, said Monday. "This is the first little volley."
WYDOT officials advised that the cost of widening highways is now $1.4 billion, considerably higher than earlier estimates. The cost is no longer $1 million per mile but $3 million per mile, Mockler said.
Mineral companies, she said, think the state should use mineral severance tax money to upgrade the highways. Mockler said she disagreed.
"I think we compromised and said it has to be a recognition from everyone around the board," she said.
"I think it was a way of saying, 'It's an all-around user fee,'" Mockler added.
At its next meeting, the Revenue Committee will look at staff analyses of other states on their fuels taxes and highway funding systems.
WYDOT offered a study that said 83 percent of the people surveyed want to build multilane highways and 51 percent are willing to accept higher taxes to pay for the projects.
Another committee member, Sen. Stan Cooper, R-Kemmerer, said he is opposing the fuels tax increase because it would penalize the people working in the industries that are providing the state's revenue surplus.
"People in the service industries for the oil and gas industries and in the coal industry have to travel many miles to get to their employment," Cooper said Monday.
Moreover, he said, gasoline prices already are pretty high.
"My other thought is we have sufficient funds in this surplus that we've had for the last several years, and it looks like we're heading that way again," he added.
Cooper emphasized that he supports multilane highways, citing the heavy traffic on Highway 30 North extending from Granger through Kemmerer to the Idaho border.
"If you have a death wish, just get on that highway with 20 or 30 trucks traveling in a row," he added.
Other dangerous congested roads on the upgrade list, he said, include State Highway 59 south of Gillette and Highway 287 south of Laramie.
Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.