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Publication: MetroNews
Release Date: 11/19/2009
State Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox says a bill being considered in this week's special session would give the state Road Fund more stability.
The bill would set a floor for the state gasoline tax at 32.2 cents a gallon, while the annual wholesale price adjustment could only move up or down by 10 percent.
"That gives us some stability in our budgeting of the state Road Fund when looking at future projects and how to fund them," Sec. Mattox said.
Governor Joe Manchin and lawmakers have disagreed on the adjustment issue during the past few years. The wholesale price was higher for several years and that would have given the Road Fund more money, but the governor chose to freeze the tax. This year, the wholesale amount is lower and the governor and lawmakers don't want the tax and revenues to go down.
Mattox says setting a ceiling and floor would take the guessing out of the equation. "We would know that within 10 percent what the fluctuation is. The most it would be 10 percent one way or the other," Mattox said.
The bill also takes $27 million set aside by state lawmakers a few years ago to make up for a shortage in the gasoline tax and move it to the DOH maintenance fund for secondary roads. Mattox says that new money would be very helpful beginning next spring.
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