{"id":114096,"date":"2015-03-09T20:41:25","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T02:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lawmakers-target-gas-tax-for-roads\/"},"modified":"2015-03-09T20:41:25","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T02:41:25","slug":"lawmakers-target-gas-tax-for-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lawmakers-target-gas-tax-for-roads\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers target gas tax for roads"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Replacing
Replacing this elevated portion of Interstate 70 north of downtown Denver is Colorado\u2019s top road infrastructure priority. The $1.2 billion project will rank as one of the state\u2019s most expensive ever.<\/span>Dan Boyce\/Rocky Mountain PBS I-News, Inside Energy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI would say we cut back a good $600 to $1,000 a week, maybe,\u201d Ali said.<\/p>\n

They are not keen on handing that money to the government through a gas tax, Ali said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that America\u2019s roads are in trouble. Highways, interstates and bridges are crumbling, and there\u2019s an estimated $90 billion annual shortfall to make the fixes.<\/p>\n

So, many lawmakers are saying now is the time to raise state and federal gas taxes, which have been the main funding source for road infrastructure for decades.<\/p>\n

Iowa and Wyoming have raised gas taxes in recent years, and other states are considering it. But, even that may not be the long-term solution to the widely deteriorating infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a form of revenue that goes long term into the future, the gas tax is a dying tax,\u201d said Amy Ford, communications director for the Colorado Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s state gas tax is a consistent 22 cents per gallon no matter the price of gas. It hasn\u2019t been raised since 1993. The federal portion of the gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, which hasn\u2019t been raised since the same year, and it supports the U.S. Department of Transportation Highway Trust Fund.<\/p>\n

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., is pushing legislation to increase the federal gas tax by 15 cents over the next three years, matching a proposal that was included in the 2011 Simpson-Bowles budget-reform proposal. The report said the Highway Trust Fund will go bankrupt this spring unless Congress replenishes it.<\/p>\n

According to an Inside Energy analysis, if you account for inflation, CDOT is taking in 30 percent less money from gas taxes now than it did in 2000.<\/p>\n

The trend is going downward, despite a statewide population increase of a million people since 2000. That\u2019s more cars and trucks pounding out more miles on Colorado roads, shelling out less money in gas taxes.<\/p>\n

Lone Tree Mayor Jim Gunning is part of MPACT 64, a group of leaders representing Colorado counties. They\u2019ve been polling the public about raising the gas tax by 15 cents per gallon, as well as sustainable funding options.<\/p>\n

They range from a slight increase in the state sales tax to an idea being studied by 11 Western states, in which the state would track drivers\u2019 miles and charge a fee based on that figure. Colorado and Oregon are starting pilot projects this year.<\/p>\n

The Oregon DOT is looking for volunteers for its pilot, saying that the drivers will monitor miles driven using everything from a GPS tracker to an odometer device to a daily diary.<\/p>\n

\u201cGPS will be the most hassle-free option,\u201d said Michelle Godfrey, a road usage charge program spokeswoman, in a story by the Oregonian. \u201cBut it\u2019s also the option that people tend to dislike the most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Replacing this elevated portion of Interstate 70 north of downtown Denver is Colorado\u2019s top road infrastructure priority. The $1.2 billion project will rank as one of the state\u2019s most expensive ever.Dan Boyce\/Rocky Mountain PBS I-News, Inside Energy \u201cI would say we cut back a good $600 to $1,000 a week, maybe,\u201d Ali said. They are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[576,13,12,259],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-114096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-colorado-department-of-transportation","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-state-budget-and-tax","tag-transportation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114096"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=114096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}