A Connecticut legislative panel has dropped a proposed hike in the state’ fuel tax. Instead, they approved an increase in the gross earning tax on petroleum companies to finance Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s $1.3 billion, 10-year transportation improvement plan.

The joint Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee voted 37-8 May 16 to amend the transportation plan, which now heads to the Senate for consideration.

State Rep. Cameron Staples, co-chairman of the committee, told The Stamford Advocate the panel felt that forcing only drivers to pay seemed unfair.

“Our sense was there was no reason why drivers should pay for our whole transportation plan,” Staples, D-New Haven, said.

Rell’s initial proposal included $667 million to purchase 342 new railroad cars over the next decade – an effort to improve service and entice commuters out of their vehicles and off congested highways.

A 6-cent-per-gallon increase in the fuel tax over the next eight years would have paid for the bulk of the plan.

The governor’s plan also included $300 million for new rail maintenance facilities; $187 million for improvements in congested stretches of Interstate 95; $150 million to help upgrade I-94 and I-84; and $7.5 million for new buses.

The committee-approved version of the bill – SB1057 – still includes money for improvements to I-95 and putting hundreds of new cars on rail tracks.

In addition, the effort would gradually increase the existing gross earning tax on companies distributing petroleum products.

Those products include gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel, kerosene, benzol, distillate fuels and crude oil.

Senators could refer the bill to another panel before voting, or it could be included in the state’s overall two-year, $32 billion budget proposal.

Rick Harris, a Rell spokesman, told the Hartford Courant the governor is not pleased with the proposed changes. But he did not indicate she would vigorously fight them.