Steuben County officials are pulling out all the stops in hopes of getting a local option gas tax through the Legislature to increase funding for highway maintenance.
During the first reading of the county’s 2016 budget recently, members of the Steuben County Council talked about the initial work being done by council members Dan Caruso and Wil Howard.
“Right now, there’s more of a political will to accept it,” Caruso said.
That’s because there has been pressure put on the Indiana Department of Transportation to better maintain roads and bridges across the state, and a need statewide for local entities to better be able to maintain roads.
But that takes money, and in a donor county such as Steuben, there’s a push to get more money back from the gas tax collected. While there’s literally millions of gallons of gas sold locally, with the two major interstates and a federal highway crossing the county, the portion received by the county and other units of government is disproportionate.
County officials hope to take advantage of a local option gas tax that they feel would be fairer than a wheel tax, which would only charge people who have vehicles registered in the county. The gas tax would collect money from every person who pumps gas into their vehicles, including tourists and motorists who are merely driving through the county.
“I hope Dan and Wil are making enough noise to get some attention,” said Rick Shipe, council president.
The two have been meeting with local lawmakers and INDOT officials in hopes of crafting legislation that will make it through the General Assembly.
While past attempts to get a local gas tax have failed, officials feel the mood in Indianapolis has changed to the point that such a move might be possible.
There was talk Wednesday that the tax would be in the range of 1 cent per gallon. It was estimated the tax would possibly generate in the range of $1 million for the county alone. The gross tax revenue would be divided among all units of government — cities and towns — that receive gas tax distribution.
When discussing a wheel tax earlier in the year, it was estimated the county would bring in nearly $1.18 million, with about $900,000 of that going to Steuben County.
As an experiment, commissioners and council provided the highway department $900,000 from Major Moves to conduct road maintenance this year just to see what impact it would have. Projects have been done across the county from simple patching to road reconstruction, much to the delight of officials and residents.
Talk of the gas tax or the wheel tax was brought up Aug. 26 when Ron Smith, president of the commissioners, remarked that the county couldn’t keep taking money from Major Moves to fund highway work. For a number of years the county has budgeted $250,000 annually from Major Moves for road work.
“If we wish to stop that bleeding, you’re going to have to come up with another tax,” Smith said.
The county currently has $9.7 million left in uncommitted funds in Major Moves, which came from the proceeds of the lease of the Indiana Toll Road in 2006. Steuben County’s share of the Toll Road lease was $33.7 million. While the funds have been used on a variety of projects, there is some money that’s being received in the form of loan repayments.