Even though a federal gasoline tax increase of 4.3 cents per gallon is now a reality, don't think you're finished with higher gasoline taxes - the state gasoline tax must go up, state officials say, and go up more than the federal tax hike.
The state's 19-cents-per-gallon tax must increase a lot - maybe even double, says Rep. Byron Harward, R-Provo. "And I'll be the sacrificial lamb to do it" - sponsor the huge tax hike in the 1994 Legislature.Gov. Mike Leavitt agrees the state's gasoline tax must increase. Harward killed his gas tax bill in the 1993 session because the newly elected Leavitt didn't want to see a major tax hike his first year in office. But already Leavitt's transportation director is talking about a gas tax hike in 1994 and Leavitt is expected to get on the train sometime soon.
Another gas tax hike won't be popular, they never are, says Harward. But, he predicts, lawmakers and Leavitt will bite the tax-hike bullet and approve some kind of gas tax increase in 1994 "because the citizens will realize that - unlike the federal government - all of this tax increase will go to our roads, where it should."
The federal 4.3-cent increase won't go to roads at all, but to reduce the federal government's huge debt.
During the 1993 Legislature, Harward talked about a 30-cent-per-gallon state tax increase. Lawmakers were stunned. Leavitt wanted nothing to do with it his first year in office. And Harward finally didn't even introduce a bill, saying he knew it would go nowhere without the governor's approval and the time wasn't right.
"I can't say now at what level my bill (in 1994) will come in with. But I figure it will be around 15 cents a gallon. What it comes out at - after the Legislature gets done with it - may well be less than that."
The last gasoline tax increase was 5 cents in 1987. Harward says ever since then, inflation and more fuel-efficient cars have pushed the needs of the Utah Department of Transportation and city and county roads beyond that nickle increase. "Instead of getting ahead each year with that 5-cent increase, we've fallen behind."
Technically, the gasoline tax is a user fee. If you don't drive a car, you don't pay the tax. But because so many people do drive cars, or take transportation that does pay the tax, a gas tax increase is close to a general tax hike - just about everyone will feel it. Ideally, says Harward, a better user fee system would be taxing vehicles on how much they travel and how heavy they are - for frequency of travel and weight are what wears down roads. But short of starting a whole new taxing system, the gas tax is the best method.
It may seem like Harward is asking for the moon with a 15-cent gas tax increase. But, he says, "that is the basic needed - just enough to fix and maintain the roads we have now." Little would be left over to build new roads or expand existing roads.
"At 15 cents a gallon I don't think we could add the lanes we need to I-15. This doesn't buy us much in the way of capacity." That means Utahns could see the largest gasoline tax in the state's history and not see much reduction in crowded, urban driving.
"They would see better roads - maybe not more roads," Harward says.
Finally, Harward will approach his selling job with a simple fact: Either fix it now or fix it later at much greater cost. "We can go on like we have. And sooner or later our roads will simply be impassable. And the more you let a road deteriorate, the greater the cost in repair or rebuilding. . . . Is it an option to do nothing and let the roads and bridges fall apart? Yes. But it is not an acceptable option."