Congress’s repeated failure to increase the federal gas tax has resulted in eighteen states enacting laws to increase or reform their taxes to provide additional funding for transportation infrastructure since 2013. The recently signed-into-law transportation bill, the FAST Act, does provide five years of slightly increased funding for federal-aid highway and transit programs but fails to address the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund – continuing to place the burden on states to find additional funding for transportation infrastructure.
According to an analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, Jan. 1 brought gas tax changes to nine states – 5 cuts and 4 increases. The gas taxes in New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and West Virginia will see cuts, while Nebraska, Utah, Maryland and Florida will see increases. In most cases, the cuts are a result of the tax rate being tied to the price of gas which is now averaging below $2.00 per gallon nationally. The exceptions being North Carolina (gas tax tied to population growth and energy prices) and Pennsylvania (scheduled slight decrease). This chart outlines the state gas tax changes that took effect on Jan. 1.
AGC remains focused on addressing the long-term solvency of Highway Trust and working with our chapters to increase revenue for transportation infrastructure at the state and local levels.
For more information, please contact Sean O’Neill at oneills@agc.org at (202) 547-8892.