Utah
lawmakers are discussing the possibility of boosting the state’s
fuel tax as much as 10 cents a gallon in the next few years, The
Salt Lake Tribune reported.
As
the Legislature confronts the state’s current budget crisis, they
must decide how the state can keep working on roads and still pay
off the millions in bond debt taken on to rebuild I-15 and other
major roads.
Some
lawmakers think the solution is to increase the fuel tax, already
the seventh highest in the nation, The Tribune reported.
An additional 10-cent hike in the fuel tax would raise another $130
million in state revenue.
“Our
difficulty is we have got significant road projects in the future
and we’re going to need another gas-tax increase, sometime in the
next two to three years,” House Speaker Marty Stephens (R-Farr West),
told The Tribune.
