Iowa Farm Bureau supports increase in gas tax

One day after an advisory panel recommended an increase in the state's gasoline tax to generate more revenue for critical transportation need, the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation threw its support behind the proposed tax hike.

IFBF President Craig Lang of Brooklyn said Thursday his group was applauding the proposed fuel tax of eight to 10 cents per gallon put forward by the Governor's Transportation 2020 Citizen Advisory Commission because rural roads make up nearly 90,000 miles of Iowa's 114,000-mile road system.

“Our roads and bridges have been severely impacted over the years by flooding and neglect, negatively impacting all of Iowa, but especially our rural communities, businesses and farms,” Lang said in a statement.

“Our members believe it's imperative to repair the roads and bridges to help rural Iowa thrive,” he added. “We believe that an increase in the fuel tax is the fairest way to fund those repairs because it charges people who actually use the roads whether they live in Iowa or are from out of state.”

Three years ago Farm Bureau delegates supported a policy position calling for the fuel tax increase to repair the state's roads and bridges, Lang noted.

The citizen advisory panel held hearings around Iowa before deciding Wednesday to forward the proposed gas tax increase to the Iowa Transportation Commission for consideration Nov. 8. The advisory panel members also recommended raising the registration fees for new vehicles from 5 percent to 6 percent and establishing a new user fee for hybrid vehicles in hopes that the Legislature and Gov. Terry Branstad would support a package aimed at generating from $184 million to $320 million in new yearly revenue for critical transportation needs.

Roughly $215 million is needed to address the state's “critical” infrastructure needs and more than $1 billion would be needed to cover all the outstanding transportation projects, according to a state survey.

DOT officials project that each penny increase in the state fuel tax would bring in about $22 million in revenue, and the 1 percentage point increase in vehicle registration fees was expected to generate $50 million in additional revenue.

Iowa currently gets $1.2 billion in yearly transportation money through the state's road-use tax fund, which annually takes in $470 million from various vehicle-related fees and $430 million from fuel taxes currently set at 21 cents a gallon on sales of unleaded gasoline, 19 cents per gallon for ethanol-blended fuels and 22.5 cents a gallon for diesel, according to DOT data. Iowa's gas tax was last raised in 1989 and currently ranks in the bottom third among states nationally, DOT officials noted.

A leader of the Iowa Tea Party leader has said his group is urging all 150 state legislators to pledge to oppose a gas tax increase proposal next legislation session, but Branstad has cautioned policymakers that it is “premature” to rule out any option before the study process has been completed and recommendations are finalized.