AUGUSTA, Maine - How to fund future highway and bridge repairs and improvements was the big question today at the annual Maine Transportation Conference in Augusta.
The fuel tax is not keeping up with needs, but Gov. Paul LePage made it clear that he'll block any effort to raise state gas taxes. LePage acknowledges, though, that an increase at the federal level might be needed.
Maine is facing hundreds of millions of dollars in needed road upgrades and bridge repairs, as well as bridge replacements. But, the fuel tax at both the state and federal level that provides more than three quarters of the current funding is declining.
Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood told hundreds at the conference that the federal gas tax needs to be increased for the United States as a whole to prosper. "Look, I am not coming here promoting you all raise your state taxes," LaHood said. "But what I am promoting is a gas tax that has made America a great country, put people to work, created economic development."
The federal gas tax of 18.4 cents a gallon has not been increased since 1993. Maine’s gas tax is 30 cents a gallon. Gov. LePage told the conference he will block any state increase. But in an interview with MPBN News, he says there may have to be an increase at the federal level.
"At the federal level, I certainly think they need to be looking at it," LePage said. "At the state level, we need to be competitive with the rest of the country so we can’t go ahead of the country."
LePage says he does agree more resources need to be found for transportation needs, and is not looking to increase any fees. But, he said he wants lawmakers to look at whether the excise tax on motor vehicles collected by cities and towns when vehicles are registered is being used only for transportation - the intention, he says, when the tax was first imposed in 1922.
"That was the discussion behind it. It got into law and now it is used for everything," he says. "I know - I was in Waterville."
LePage was Waterville’s mayor before his election as governor in 2010. The tax is a major source of revenue for municipalities. In calendar year 2012 it brought in nearly $196 million for all municipalities, with larger cities collecting millions of dollars a year.
In his speech, LaHood called for fuel taxes to be indexed to annual inflation increases. Maine used to do that, but Gov. LePage led the successful effort to repeal indexing in his first year in office, and he still opposes indexing.
But Maria Fuentes, of the Maine Better Transportation Association, says indexing worked and Maine’s roads and bridges would be in a lot better shape today if it had not been repealed.
"Indexing, while it was in place, generated some $300 million for the system," she says. "Think about how far behind we are now."
And Fuentes says the state will continue to fall behind without additional resources. She says while the state has used some general fund revenues for highway and bridge bonds, it has not been enough. She says talking about innovative solutions is not enough. Real dollars, she says, need to be invested in transportation.
