Raising the Gas Tax, What's it good for?

There is talk around Des Moines that the state of Iowa needs to raise taxes on gas because of a decline in revenue. Currently Iowa is 30th in the nation in gasoline taxes.

A 5-cent increase in Iowa's gasoline tax would generate an additional $110 million annually.

Iowa motorists now pay state taxes of 21 cents per gallon on regular gasoline; 19 cents per gallon on ethanol-blended gasoline; 17 cents per gallon for E-85 fuel; and 22.5 cents per gallon on diesel fuel.

What would this extra money be used for? Well, of course it would be used to build more roads or expand existing ones.

Between 1999 and 2005, the number of miles of substandard pavement on the state's primary road system increased by 44 percent, to 2,836 miles, DOT officials said. This represents an increase in pavement rehabilitation needs of $366 million above existing needs.

In addition, many parts of Iowa's interstate highway system are strained to capacity, leading to congestion, which affects air quality and dampens economic activity, DOT officials said. This is not surprising because much of Iowa's interstate system was built 50 years ago to accommodate 20 years of traffic growth, officials said.

So they are saying traffic leads to congestion, which leads to poor air quality, and building more roads will solve that. I don't think so.

I would be for an increase in taxes on gasoline if that extra money went to public transportation. Increase the bus services in cities around Iowa or be brave and build a light rail from Des Moines to Ames or Cedar Rapids to Iowa City.

As for the chances of rasing the gas tax, since it wasn't a plan introduced by Democrats or Republicans, I feel that it may pass because both sides have political cover.

**Update**
The Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier has a story saying that Amtrak ridership is at record levels in Iowa.

A total of 61,377 people got on and off Amtrak trains at six Iowa stations during the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the railroad said.

That’s just shy of the railroad’s all-time high of 61,418 passengers in Iowa a year earlier.

“Our experience anecdotally has been that when gasoline prices make a major move, people search for alternatives for their travel plans. For a lot of people, we are a great alternative,” said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari in Chicago.