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Your Capitol Voice: Welcoming feedback on fuel tax
by Bobby Kaufmann, State Representative · Op-Ed · February 19, 2015
We are fast approaching the funnel deadline and bills are coming in a flurry.
Any Representative or Senator can file a bill but for it to get to the House or Senate floor, it has to make it through a subcommittee and a full committee.
Any bill that hasn’t made it through the process by the March 5th “funnel deadline” is considered dead for the year.
One bill of major interest where I would like your opinion is the proposed fuel tax. The fuel tax has passed both a Senate and House subcommittee by vote of 5-0 and 3-0. It is expected to come before the full Transportation committee Wednesday and would then be eligible for a floor vote.
In this column I would like to outline my opinion … one that has been publicly shared with all of you on multiple occasions the past two years.
The Case Against
I have heard from many of you that cheap gasoline shouldn’t be an excuse to raise the fuel tax. Many of you have expressed concerns that an additional 10 cents would be a tough “pill to swallow” for those on fixed and limited incomes.
I have also heard that people would like the funding shortfall for roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure to come from finding efficiencies in the DOT budget or from a set percentage of the general fund.
I hear, understand, and can relate to many of those concerns. In the portion below I will give a few responses.
The Case For
No one will ever mistake me for a tax-raiser. I voted for a $2 billion commercial property tax cut, for a bill to return portions of unused income tax dollars back to all of you, and for an income tax cut in 2013. We currently have the third-worst bridges in the nation. Our roads are crumbling. Frankly, this issue has been neglected for almost three decades.
What I am now faced with is a problem that has to be dealt with immediately. Bonding is taking place at a high rate and if we were to bond for the yearly $215 million dollar shortfall, all of our property taxes would increase dramatically.
A 10-cent fuel tax would cost the average family around $110 per year. The price-tag on bonding for the shortfall would be 4-5 times that amount in increased property taxes. The latter would affect non-drivers who do not utilize our roads on a daily basis.
Another key component is that this “user fee” would be paid by over 20 percent of out-of-state drivers who use our roads but don’t always pay for them. Finally the fuel tax dollars are constitutionally protected against their use on anything except roads and bridges.
One thing that I want to make crystal clear – the new rest areas that are being constructed and are much more ornate than necessary and the ornate concrete on some of the interstate overpasses are as unacceptable to me as they are to you. The issue is that federal fuel tax dollars come with strings that mandate the funding of these unnecessary expenditures. This is incredibly frustrating and needs to change.
Finally, I want to address the issue of finding the infrastructure dollars from the general fund: 90 percent of our roughly $7.3 billion budget is tied to education, Medicaid, and state employees.
Do I think we could find significant savings out of $7.3 billion dollars? Absolutely. But Medicaid is partially funded through the federal government, education funding is built into a formula, and state employees are under contract. I have yet to hear anyone offer me a single serious proposal on how to reform 90 percent of the budget to the degree in which even a significant portion of our infrastructure shortfall would be funded consistently.
And remember you should NOT use one-time money savings to fund ongoing expenses. The rest of the budget is comprised of state troopers, mental health, water quality, senior dining, emergency management, corrections and veterans’ programs.
The groups advocating to take the dollars out of the General Fund will not find $215 million from these programs … not even a fraction. It is easy to criticize a plan but much more difficult to have a specific and realistic alternative. I have to fund real solutions not “talking points.”
For a little preview, I am working on some exciting bills this week that would re-define how our EMS volunteers are funded and encourage more young people to get into the profession. In addition, I am very encouraged by a bill I co-sponsored that would help the serious shortfall of our senior dining. I will write about these and many more bills next week.
Listening Post Schedule: Feb. 21, 9 a.m. Mechanicsviile Library
Capitol visitors: Mike Shugar, Melanie Moore, Wilton; Shirley Geadelmann, Clarence; Lisa Dirks, John and Bill Muhs, Lowden; Pam Hartwig, Bennett.
You may contact Rep. Kaufmann at bobby.kaufmann@legis.iowa.gov, 515-281-3221 or 1527 330th St. Wilton, IA, 52778
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