Congratulations to the Johnson County Republican Central Committee for being relevant correct and timely in the use of their influence as important issues arise. Would that the Scott County Republican Central Committee saw its role as more than sitting and listening to speeches. By the way the JCRCC vote was unanimous. Thanks to MN for the heads-up. More of our commentary follows the informed JCRCC resolution.
JCRCC Resolution on Increasing the Gas Tax in Iowa: Dec 1 -2014
Whereas Governor Branstad has just been re-elected to a historic sixth term, carrying all but one of Iowa’s 99 counties;
And whereas Governor Branstad has indicated addressing the need for repairing defective roads and bridges will be a high priority for him in 2015, and that he is open to discussion of all ideas for generating the needed revenues to do so;
And whereas some believe we are not allocating enough funds to address priority needs in a timely fashion and have therefore called for an increase in the gas tax to provide additional funds;
And whereas bureaucrats, including those in the road building and maintenance portions of our local and state government, have incentives to “spend all the money and ask for more” instead of giving back un-needed funds to the general fund or transferring them to other jurisdictions with higher priority needs for road or bridge repair;
And whereas the allocation of road use funds in Iowa has been governed by a formula adopted in 1949 (most recently changed in 1989) which directs 47.5% to primary roads, 24.5% to secondary roads, 8% to farm-to-market roads, and 20% for city streets;
And whereas in 2008 the Iowa General Assembly created the TIME-21 funding stream dedicated to maintenance and construction of primary highways (60%), secondary roads (20%), and municipal streets (20%) by changing vehicle registration fees and schedules, and by increasing trailer and title fees;
And whereas for state fiscal year 2013 receipts into these two funds were $1,300,000,000 comprised of $444,000,000 in fuel taxes, $780,000,000 in registration fees, and $80,000,000 from miscellaneous other sources;
Therefore be it Resolved that the Johnson County Republican Central Committee calls on the Governor to propose a two-year set-aside of the allocation formula and replacing it with a statewide prioritization (by engineers, instead of politicians, based on utilization, safety, and existing conditions) of all the road and bridge repair needs so that we can see if there are actually enough funds to meet the high priority needs if funds are transferred from lower priority “nice, but not necessary” projects such as colored, formed-with-designs highway medium barriers rather than grey pre-fabricated ones on I- 80 through Iowa City, concrete instead of gravel shoulders on both sides of the ring-road around Muscatine, roads from the city to the homes of newly elected county supervisors being paved, etc., etc.
Adopted by unanimous vote on Monday, 1 December 2014.
We applaud the JCRCC as well for not being seduced by the current price at the pump relief. As we all know prices will go up and down with world demand and supply factors. You can bet proponents of raising taxes will not reduce them as oil prices rise! The gas tax is on each gallon sold so revenue goes up with more fuel usage. The lower the price, the more used and the more income to the state. The wear and tear on roads is also related to more driving but also weather. We need optimum driving activity to pay for all conditions that result in road and bridge deterioration.
Keeping prices low at the pump means more benefit to consumers and businesses resulting in more driving and more economic activity, more economic activity means more taxes. We also believe taxes should be levied uniformly on all businesses that use the roads including farmers. Steady gas taxes are not hostile to road funds. We have posted several articles on the issue. They can be read here here and here. R Mall
