Local officials press for increase in gas tax
By: Alan Suderman
Examiner Staff Writer
November 10, 2009
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| (AP file photo) |
Gas tax rates» Maryland: 23.5 cents
» Virginia: 17.5 cents
» District: 23.5 cents
Maryland is long overdue for an increase in the gas tax to help build new roads and ease congestion, Montgomery County Council President Phil Andrews said Monday.
The tax -- 23.5 cents a gallon -- hasn't been increased since 1992, while the state's ability to pay for new massive transportation projects, such as expanding Interstate 270, dwindles, Andrews said.
"There's a good chance that the state will address it after next year, otherwise state transportation projects will grind to a halt," Andrews said.
Andrews' comments echo the sentiments of many elected officials in the District's suburbs, who said their constituents would be happy to pay an extra nickel or dime per gallon of gasoline if it meant spending less time sitting in some of the country's worst traffic.
"I think people in Northern Virginia have been ready to have their transportation problems fixed and they've been prepared to pay for them for years," said Christopher Zimmerman, an Arlington County supervisor.
The District has passed a 3.5-cent-per-gallon increase to help bridge its budget gap, but Virginia's gas tax has been the same since 1986. Supporters said a gas tax increase is critical because the value of the tax has fallen as inflation rises and the cost of building new roads increases.
Alexandria Vice Mayor Kerry Donley is proposing doubling the additional 2 percent Northern Virginia drivers already pay in gas taxes to help pay for Metro. He said the money raised would ease the burden on property owners whose taxes have been used to supplement transportation funding.
But despite strong support for gas tax increases by local elected officials and powerful state officials, such as Virginia Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Springfield, and Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George's, there seems little chance of a gas tax increase in the near future.
Maryland’s elected officials are about to enter an election year and probably aren’t eager to support an issue “that you can be hammered across the head with,” said John Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic auto club.
"It's certainly not something we're considering right now," said Gov. Martin O'Malley's spokesman Shaun Adamec, who added that there was little "appetite or desire" to raise taxes in the current economic climate.
Virginia Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell pledged during his campaign to hold the line on all taxes, a view shared by the majority of the state's Republican-controlled House of Delegates.
Republican Sen. Alex Mooney, R-Frederick, said Maryland residents are already taxed enough and the state has enough money to fund transportation projects if it cuts spending in other areas.
