Louisiana parishes and municipalities won’t be able to raise their own gas taxes to pay for road and bridge work.
Lawmakers on the House tax committee spurned a proposed constitutional amendment this morning that would have removed an existing ban keeping local governments from levying taxes on motor fuels.
Republican Rep. Steve Carter of Baton Rouge proposed the idea after failing to get House support last year for a statewide gas tax hike. Gridlock in the Capitol Region is so severe that voters should get to determine if they want to enact local gas taxes to help relieve congestion, Carter said.
“All I’m trying to do is solve a problem that we have here particularly.”
Voters would have decided whether to enact the constitutional change in a November election. But the House Ways and Means Committee refused to advance the proposal to the full House, snubbing the bill in an 8-7 vote.
Opponents disagreed with increasing taxes, suggested drivers would go to other communities to avoid the increased cost or worried about diverting money from statewide projects to a region-by-region approach.
“In my mind you’re taking money away from state roads and state bridges,” said Rep. Mike Huval, a Republican from Breaux Bridge.
Republican Rep. Barry Ivey, also from Baton Rouge, said he applauded efforts to try to tackle traffic snares in the area, but he’s worried about over-complicating tax policies by allowing different tax rates in parishes, towns and cities.
“I prefer the solution you brought last year to this one,” Ivey told Carter.
Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson also raised concerns, saying it could jeopardize future efforts to raise statewide dollars for infrastructure projects and the dollars that could be raised by a local gas tax would be limited.
“One penny of fuel tax is only $30 million across the entire state of Louisiana. If you divide that by parish and you divide that by region, it gets smaller and smaller,” he said.
