CHEYENNE - A legislative panel Tuesday endorsed a two-part measure that would raise the state fuel tax while simultaneously providing a break in vehicle registration costs.

The 5-cent-per-gallon fuel tax increase would generate about $22.5 million a year for the ailing state highway system, with nonresident travelers shouldering half of the burden, according to an estimate by the Legislative Service Office.

Vehicle owners, meanwhile, would pay about $120 less to register each new vehicle a year, or about $45 less for a vehicle older that five years. The resulting revenue reduction - about $25.2 million a year - would come off school districts, which are flush with mineral revenue, said the bill's author, Sen. Jayne Mockler, D-Cheyenne.

"Ultimately, for most of us, it's a tax decrease, and it's a tax decrease that doesn't hurt anyone," Mockler said.

For more of this and other stories read Wednesday's Casper Star-Tribune.