NEWS BLIPSSeveral States In Search of Transportation Funding
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through Governing's website.
Governing reports on four states that will give voters a chance to decide which is the best way to raise money to fix roads and other infrastructure. As reported in the article by Daniel C. Vock, "Gas taxes may be the most practical way to raise money for transportation, but they can also be politically perilous. That's why transportation advocates are closely watching four statewide ballot measures this November that would affect fuel taxes or transportation funding." Voters in California, Colorado, Missouri and Utah will face questions in the ballots that deal directly with the transportation issues that have stonewalled lawmakers for months, and in most cases, years.
These four statewide transportation questions could be in reaction to a growing willingness by state lawmakers to raise taxes or find other sources of new money to improve roads and other infrastructure. Posing transportation funding questions to voters can be risky, at least for advocates hoping for more infrastructure money. Voters tend to respond viscerally to gas tax increases because it's easier for them to calculate how much more they'd be paying compared to, say, changes to property tax levies or income tax rates. That's because the federal government and most states use simple per-gallon taxes for motor fuels. For instance in one major state, early polling showed that Californians preferred to repeal the tax. “Cities have thousands of local transportation projects already in the pipeline that will make our roads safer and our commutes better. We have an obligation to every citizen and California driver to defeat this initiative,” Carolyn Coleman, the executive director of the League of California Cities, said in a statement.
Continue reading here to review the options and current tendencies available in Missouri, Utah, and Colorado concerning funding transportation costs.