The state of Nebraska is kicking around what has quickly become the age-old question among departments of transportation: Do we raise the state gas tax?
Despite 2010 being an election year for over half of the state’s lawmakers, some are actually considering a five-cent hike of the gas tax, which ranks 19th in the country. The increase would bring in approximately $60 million in new money a year.
“We need more money, and it should come from a user fee,” Sen. Arnie Stuthman, who is entering his final year in the state legislature, told the Omaha World-Herald. “In my opinion, that is the gas tax. That’s as simple and as plain as it ought to be.
Other lawmakers do not carry the same kind of tax-increase enthusiasm as Stuthman, and instead are suggesting the formation of a bond-issuing infrastructure bank. Nebraska has only issued bonds once, in 1969, and the strategy would allow cities and counties to borrow as much as $250 million to improve roads and bridges.
However, how Nebraska is going to fund an infrastructure bank is still unknown.
Public hearings held last year showed that Nebraskans are willing to pay more for an improvement of the state’s road and bridge network, but lawmakers, despite all of the talk, are still hesitant about doing something during an election year. A major overhaul would most likely have to be approved during a 60-day legislative session.
An interim study by the state’s Transportation Committee said that unless new revenue sources were found, “Nebraska’s highway system would fall in disrepair and expansion of the system would come to an end.”
