Surprise: No nays to higher gas tax

Wednesday, April 11, 2007 | 7:31 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Give us taxes or give us ... taxes?

In a packed legislative committee room Tuesday, the unthinkable happened. Not a single voice was raised against a bill to increase Nevada's gas tax by 6 cents over the next two years, increase it at a rate tied to inflation thereafter, and to raise other taxes to pay for highway construction.

Sen. Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, Senate Taxation Committee chairman, said after the meeting that he was surprised. "I kept going through the sign-up sheets trying to find the people who were going to speak in opposition. There weren't any."

Instead, everyone from union members to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce spoke in favor of the bill to combine several revenue sources to help offset the state's need for about $280 million a year to fund an estimated $3.8 billion in new highway projects.

The taxes didn't stop with raising the state gas levy, which is 17.65 cents a gallon. Also drawing nary a voice of dissent were proposals to raise the fee for identification cards and regular and commercial driver's licenses by $20, and slow the annual depreciation rate for vehicles, which means registration fees based on the value of vehicles would not fall as quickly as they do now.

The bill also asks to transfer to the State Highway Fund 2 percent of state revenue raised from sales taxes for auto parts and repair.

If approved, the various changes would increase state revenue $118 million in the first year and $213 million in the next.

Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, told the committee he wasn't "personally ready to vote for something like a gas tax" but added that the discussion has to take place. "The issue is acute in this state right now."

The state also is considering other ways to pay for roads. A few weeks ago, former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt went to the Capitol extolling the virtues of privately operated toll roads - a company gives the state a huge lump sum of cash in return for a multi decade lease on a toll road.

Also a possibility is something called the weight-distance tax, which amounts to a tax on commercial trucks based on the weight of a vehicle and the miles it is driven. Some say that's the more equitable tax, given that trucks do more damage to roads than lighter cars.

Committee member Sen. Bob Coffin, a Las Vegas Democrat, mentioned weight-distance tax as a common-sense wave of the future - even if unpopular with the trucking industry - partly because the production of more fuel-efficient cars will mean fewer tax dollars for the state.

Former Nevada Transportation Department Director Jeff Fontaine told Coffin a weight-distance tax is, indeed, the wave of the future but is several years down the road.

"Can we wait that long to start planning it?" Coffin replied.

Committee Chairman McGinness said he thought some elements of the bill would win committee approval. Any action must come by Thursday or the bill dies.