The Hutchinson News: Fuel-efficient cars limit motor fuel tax revenues
media mentionPosted: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 10:22 am
By Mary Clarkin The Hutchinson News [email protected]
More fuel-efficient vehicles rolling off production lines will make it harder to maintain Reno County’s roads and bridges, authorities caution.
Motorists in Kansas pay 24 cents a gallon at the gas pump in motor fuels tax. The State Highway Fund keeps two-thirds of the tax revenue, and the rest goes to the Special City County Highway Fund. Reno County’s 2014 budget anticipates receiving close to $1.6 million from this revenue stream, which helps the county maintain 600 miles of paved county roads and over 860 bridges.
But newer cars get better gas mileage, and as people trade in older cars, motor fuels tax revenues won’t be rising steadily, state officials said during a visit to Hutchinson last week.
It is “kind of plateauing right now,” said Reno County Administrator Gary Meagher, who, along with Reno County Commission Chairman James Schlickau were included in the conversation with Kansas Department of Transportation Secretary Mike King and Kansas Department of Commerce Secretary Pat George.
As Meagher relayed that message to the full Reno County Commission this week, he called it “a real challenge.”
“A lot of our roads look nice on the surface,” Meagher said, but the structure below needs work.
The city of Hutchinson received over $1 million from the Special City County Highway Fund in fiscal year 2013, and Hutchinson City Manager John Deardoff also was in the meeting with King and George. He, too, has heard that fuel consumption potentially could drop, stalling motor fuel tax growth. “Obviously that’s a concern for us,” Deardoff said, because that’s “a significant part” of the city’s money for streets.
Deardoff hasn’t seen stalled tax revenues in the city’s most recent trends, but looking ahead, KDOT projects little growth.
In the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s 2011 report on “Building a Better Gas Tax,” it claimed most state gas taxes are built to fail because they are fixed rates that do not keep pace with increasing costs to build and maintain roads. The average state has not raised its gas or diesel tax rate in about a decade, the report said.
Kansas hasn’t raised its 24-cents-per gallon for gas/26-cents-per-gallon for diesel fuel tax rates since July 1, 2003. Kansas has higher fuel tax rates than the average for bordering states, and Steve Swartz, chief of the office of public affairs for KDOT, said “there is no discussion about raising the tax in the Legislature at this time.”
King and George were on a listening tour, Deardoff said, and business leaders were among those invited to participate.
Part of what King and George heard was local concern about the state’s diversion in recent years of over $1 billion from State Highway Fund money for other expenses. The state highway program “is near and dear to Reno County,” Deardoff said.