Another rocky road facing gas tax bill in Louisiana Legislature

A gas tax bill crafted by a statewide industry group, Louisiana Coalition to Fix Our Roads, and sponsored by Republican Baton Rouge Rep. Steve Carter is the latest proposed solution to the state’s aging, chronically gridlocked transportation infrastructure.

It’s also the most ambitious. Not only would the bill gradually increase the state’s gasoline tax, but it would levy fees on electric and hybrid vehicles and redirect a temporary, half-cent sales tax to highway and bridge construction projects.

It would also dedicate a portion of the funds to specific, badly needed projects around the state, including a new Mississippi River bridge in Baton Rouge, a new Calcasieu River bridge in Lake Charles and the completion of Interstate 49 south from Lafayette to New Orleans.

Perhaps most significantly, the bill would ensure all new revenue generated by the taxes and fees go only to construction projects—as opposed to operations at the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development—by safeguarding them in a dedicated subfund of the state’s Transportation Trust Fund.

Though the bill effectively satisfies every problem opponents have had with past efforts to raise the gas tax, it’s likely to face stiff opposition from a coalition of strange bedfellows: Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who doesn’t want to raise taxes in a year when he’s up for re-election year, and conservative lawmakers, who don’t want to raise taxes ever.

That said, at least parts of the bill are supported by influential economic development and business groups, including the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. They understand the state’s economic future is at stake. The public, too, is more desperate than ever for solutions, particularly after the traffic nightmares that snarled the Capital Region in late March, most notably when the La. 1 bridge in Port Allen was partially shut down.

The government solution to any problem is either to ban something, raise taxes or both. What does the state do with the gas tax money it collects now? Put in bike lanes? Subsidize mass transit that very few people use? Putting in rail lies is always a favorite of Democrats, chamber of commerce and GOPe types - enormously expensive, completely inflexible, obsolete before it's complete.

The problem is that there is never any downside to the people who propose these things. The worst that can happen is that they're not re-elected. Personally I think the Vlad Tepes treatment is appropriate for money wasting politicians, but that's too much to hope for although a series of stakes with impaled democrats in a public park might give the others pause.

Just recently Gwinnett county defeated a proposal to expand MARTA heavy rail into the county at the cost of an additional 1% sales tax for the next 38 years. Gwinnett collected $153 million in sales taxes in 2017 and $150 million in 2016. This was on 7% so simple math divide $152mil by 7 and multiply by 38 to get $825 million*. BUT WAIT there's more. There was a 1.3% increase year over year which shifts the amount to $1.024 BILLION dollars extracted from one county to enrich the coffers of Democrat Marta bureaucrats and Chamber of Commerce construction companies. I'm sure Louisiana is no different.

*This is inevitably referred to as a "penny tax."

I remember how bad driving across the state was until I-20 was completed. That feeling only lasted out five years. The whole I-20 had to be was torn up, including the road bed. It took several year and millions of dollars to rebuild. I never knew the details but the state has a reputation of corruption. Sound like a sleazy contractor paid off sleazy politicians then used substandard materials. The rebuilt I-20 has lasted several decades.

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