MetroWest Daily News: Ballot question could halt tax
media mentionBy Brian Benson
Daily News Staff
Posted Apr. 5, 2014 @ 11:46 pm
A measure lawmakers approved last year to index the gas tax to inflation is prompting debate amid an effort to repeal the provision.
Lawmakers last year increased the gas tax from 21 cents per gallon to 24 cents per gallon and linked it to inflation.
Backers of a potential fall ballot question want to see the inflation provision repealed, arguing lawmakers should have to vote each time for the gas tax to increase. Those who support indexing the gas tax to inflation say it is critical to keep up with the cost of goods and services needed for transportation projects.
MassDOT estimates indexing will cost the average driver $5 per year and, over a decade, generate $2 billion for use on transportation projects.
Stephanie Pollack, an associate director of Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, said Massachusetts became one of a growing number of states that are indexing gas taxes to inflation.
“It’s a tax we use to build infrastructure and the cost to build infrastructure basically rises with inflation,” Pollack said.
She said lawmakers historically do not frequently increase gas taxes. It takes on average 17 years for lawmakers in states that have a fixed rate gas tax to raise it, according to a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Before last year’s increase, the gas tax was last raised in Massachusetts in 1991.
Marty Lamb, a Holliston resident and co-sponsor of the ballot question movement, said if more money is needed in the future for transportation or other reasons, lawmakers should vote on it.
“Our basic position has been from the start and remains that a future potential increase in the tax should be voted on by the representatives and senators on Beacon Hill,” Lamb said. “If they truly believe additional revenue is needed, let them vote on it each time. That’s their job.”
Lamb said supporters, who have collected more than 100,000 signatures, have no plans to try to repeal the increase in the gas tax from 21 to 24 cents per gallon. They simply want to end indexing.
“Whether we agree or not (with the increase to 24 cents) is irrelevant,” Lamb said. “That was voted on the record.”
Ed McGrath, of Framingham’s Republican Town Committee, said indexing the tax to inflation decreases transparency compared to lawmakers voting on each tax increase.
“If the Legislature thinks (the state) needs more money, they should be required to say so,” he said.
Lamb said he also worries it could lead to other things such as the minimum wage being indexed to inflation.
Paul Matthews, executive director of the 495/MetroWest Partnership, said research that incorporated a range of different perspectives and political ideologies concluded that regular increases in revenue sources including the gas tax are needed.
“The fundamental problem was resources did not keep pace with need,” Matthews said, noting inadequate transportation funding led to a lag in fixing roads and bridges and enhancing other transportation areas.
Indexing the gas tax to inflation is a “necessary step to meet those documented needs,” he said.
Needs locally range from improving railroad crossings and major intersections like the I-495 and Mass. Turnpike interchange and enhancing an array of smaller roads, he said.
Michelle Ciccolo, Hudson’s community development director, said municipalities struggle to keep up with local road work. One major funding source for those projects comes from the state in the form of Chapter 90 money, something the gas tax indexing helps. State leaders recently haven’t been able to release the full amount of Chapter 90 money lawmakers supported because revenues for transportation projects overall have not been sufficient, Ciccolo said.
The federal government, meanwhile has been cutting back on transportation money states use to fund major projects, she said.
Ciccolo said she understands no one wants to pay more money, but indexing the gas tax to inflation just keeps the revenue stream consistent with the value of today’s dollar.
“I don’t see it as a tax increase,” she said. “I see it as a necessary adjustment.”