Lawmakers have long wrestled with how to raise money to fix roads and other infrastructure. In four states this November, voters will have a chance to weigh in.
SPEED READ:
- Voters in four states — California, Colorado, Missouri and Utah — face ballot measures this year that could affect gas taxes or transportation funding.
- California voters may roll back a gas tax that’s only a year old, while Missouri looks poised to raise its fuel tax for the first time in 22 years. Meanwhile, Colorado voters face a confusing trio of conflicting ballot measures, and Utah could become only the second state to use gas tax money to fund schools.
Gas taxes may be the most practical way to raise money for transportation, but they can also be politically perilous. That’s why transportation advocates are closely watching four statewide ballot measures this November that would affect fuel taxes or transportation funding.
The questions that voters in California, Colorado, Missouri and Utah face are all the more contentious because they deal directly with issues that have stymied lawmakers for months, and in most cases, years.
It is unusual to see as many statewide ballot measures on transportation funding; local measures are much more common. But these four statewide transportation questions could be in reaction to a growing willingness by state lawmakers to raise taxes or find other sources of new money to improve roads and other infrastructure. Over the last six years, 31 states have increased revenues for transportation, according to Joung Lee, the policy director for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
GOVERNING.COM
BY DANIEL C. VOCK | SEPTEMBER 25, 2018