Gas tax increase losing steam in Legislature

DES MOINES - Fuel price spikes have thrown up a major roadblock to passage of a state gas tax increase this legislative session, but key backers are not ready to declare the issue dead with adjournment of the General Assembly still more than a month away.

“I think it's losing energy. I don't think it has the requisite support in the Legislature and Iowans sure don't support it right now,” House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, told reporters at a Statehouse news conference on Thursday.

Sen. Tom Rielly, D-Oskaloosa, and Rep. David Tjepkes, R-Gowrie, leaders of House and Senate transportation committees that have pushed a per-gallon gas tax increase between eight and 10 cents, concede that the recent jump in gasoline prices and the prospects for hitting $4 a gallon later this year have created political hurdles in the election-year Legislature.

However, they don't see those challenges as insurmountable even as public-opinion polls indicate a lack of public support for a phased-in increase on top of prices averaging about $3.61 a gallon for unleaded gasoline and $3.53 for each gallon of 10 percent ethanol-blended fuel.

“I acknowledge it was a tough sell. It's always going to be a tough sell, but when gas prices go up it makes it just that much tougher,” said Rielly.

Tjepkes said there is a bipartisan recognition that Iowa's system of roads and bridges is deteriorating and current constitutionally protected revenue flowing into the state's road use tax fund is not keeping pace with critical needs.

He said an equivalent 10 cents-per-gallon gas tax increase phased through January 2014 would generate about $220 million annually to address that deficit, but the ongoing petroleum pinch on consumer pocket books is creating a political reality that may doom the issue for 2012.

“Every day you turn on the TV and you see the news coverage about gas prices going up, that does make the hill more steep for us to climb,” Tjepkes said.

Paulsen said the issue is boiling down to “a level of trust in government,” where Iowans want to see lawmakers making sure the tax dollars already being collected are being used as efficiently and effectively as possible and currently “they've sent pretty strong signals” they're not convinced that is the case.

Rielly said the bill containing a proposed increase in gas taxes by 5 cents on Jan. 1, 2013, and another 5 cents of Jan. 1, 2014, that cleared the Senate Transportation Committee has been referred to the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which means it will survive the March 16 second “funnel” deadline and be eligible for consideration until the Legislature adjourns.