19 states have raised gas taxes since 2013. In Colorado, Republicans want to cut them.
Since 2013, 19 states have raised gas taxes to pay for roads, and as many as 18 states are considering doing so this year.
But despite widespread agreement that Colorado needs to devote more money to roads, don’t expect the Centennial State to join them. In fact, Republicans here have proposed doing the opposite — asking for cuts to what they call a “dying tax.”
“This is highly unusual, what’s being talked about in Colorado right now,” said Carl Davis, research director with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
And it can largely be explained by one thing: TABOR.
Because of Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, any agreement lawmakers reach to raise taxes to pay for roads will have to go to the ballot box for approval. And gas taxes? They aren’t as popular with the voting public as they are with state legislatures.
Read full story at The Denver Post.
FILE – In this June 30, 2016 file photo, nozzles pump gas into vehicles at a BP gas station in Hoboken, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
FILE – In this June 30, 2016 file photo, nozzles pump gas into vehicles at a BP gas station in Hoboken, N.J. A week after New Jersey’s gas tax goes up by 23 cents a gallon thanks to a new law, voters will weigh in on whether every cent of the tax should to exclusively to transportation (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)