Recordpub.com - Regional agency studies gas tax increase: Kent Council may oppose national 10-cent hike at pumps

By Matt Fredmonsky | staff writer
Kent City Council may oppose a 10-cent hike in the federal gas tax, but ultimately the decision lies with members of Congress.
A majority of council members opposed the idea in a discussion held during a committee meeting Wednesday, citing largely the bad timing of suggesting a tax in the midst of a recession.
Still, the question of supporting or opposing the idea of raising the federal gas tax is one other Portage County community leaders will wrestle with this month.
The Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study, the region’s distributing agency for millions of dollars annually in federal transportation funds, will consider on Sept. 29 a symbolic resolution suggesting Congress raise the federal gas tax to help pay for infrastructure work.
The federal gas tax, currently 18.4 cents per gallon, has stayed flat since 1993. The tax puts money in the coffers of the Highway Trust Fund, which was enacted in 1956 to build the Interstate Highway System. Today, the fund pays for improvements on state roads and highways across the U.S.
Last year, the Highway Trust Fund went broke for the first time in its existence and had to rely on infusions from U.S. general fund dollars to stay afloat.
Like AMATS, other metropolitan transportation organizations are considering similar resolutions.
AMATS Director Jason Segedy said raising the gas tax would “buy us a couple years,” but he emphasized that Congress needs to adopt a new transportation bill that replaces the bill that expired in 2009 and addresses infrastructure funding.
“I definitely realize in a way this is a very bad time to be talking about raising taxes,” Segedy said. “I’m very cognizant of that. Infrastructure spending, I believe, is a key function of government. We’re spending the money anyway, it’s just that we’re spending money we’re borrowing from China rather than raising it internally.”
Both Kent and Portage County have benefited from the highway fund.
During the 2010 fiscal year, Portage communities received $8 million as part of AMATS normal allocation and an additional $4.9 million in stimulus funds.
The three most significant projects funded were: the Fairchild Avenue Bridge project, $8 million in AMATS funds; S.R. 59 traffic signal upgrade in Kent, $1.8 million in AMATS funds; and widening of S.R. 43 in Aurora, which received $1 million in AMATS funds.
In 2009 alone, Kent received $611,000 through the Highway Trust Fund for road repairs.
Gene Roberts, Kent’s service director, sits on the AMATS policy committee for Kent and will cast the city’s vote.
Roberts said the roll-call type vote on the resolution means Kent’s name will be listed as opposing a raise in the federal gas tax.
“There’s a lot of people to cast a lot of votes and wrestle with this issue,” Roberts said. “A lot of streets could be done locally if we had more money. Even though we can’t spend federal money to do local streets, by receiving more federal dollars on those streets that are federally classified, it frees up local dollars to do local streets.”