From the Richmond Palladium-Item:
Wayne County would miss out on an additional $1.2 million for roadwork over the next two years if the Indiana Senate’s version of a highway funding bill becomes law.
The bill passed by the Senate would allocate no new money to counties that haven’t adopted local option highway user taxes on trucks, trailers, buses and passenger vehicles.
The Wayne County Council considered imposing local road taxes in 2011, but after hearing from residents, decided to subsidize roads with monies from other funds. The state’s extra road revenues for 2014 and 2015 come from gasoline taxes that would no longer be used to fund the Indiana State Police and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
The Indiana House’s version of the bill doesn’t require local road taxes be imposed for counties to receive extra road dollars and also would be more generous. Wayne County would be looking at receiving $1.77 million over the next two years if the House version is adopted, according to the Indiana Association of Counties.
Wayne County Council President Jeff Plasterer lobbied local legislators in Indianapolis on Monday on the problems with the Senate’s budget bill. Wayne County is subsidizing the highway department with $1.4 million this year from other funds, more than the wheel taxes would generate, he said.
“It’s a major issue for us. Our citizens continue to pay those (gasoline) taxes, but their money would stay with the state,” Plasterer said. “Sen. (Luke) Kenley is not seeing all sides of this. He’s apparently said counties need to have ‘skin in the game.’ We have skin in the game. We’ve always had skin the game. You can see that from the conditions of our roads compared to other counties.”
Wayne County Commissioner Ken Paust, who also is president of the Indiana Association of County Commissioners, said counties contributing other monies to their highway departments should get credit for those dollars in the Senate’s funding formula. A number of counties that haven’t adopted the local taxes are subsidizing their highway departments, Paust said.
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http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013304190011&nclick_check=1
