CHARLIE BAKER HAS vowed to oppose any tax increases if elected governor, and that includes any attempt to raise the gas tax.
Baker opposes a move made by the Legislature last year, as part of a transportation financing bill, to index the state gas tax inflation so that future increases would automatically kick in each year. But he supports a provision of the same 2013 transportation bill that added 3 cents to the gas tax.
It’s a position that will let him, if elected, reap the benefits of millions of dollars of new tax revenue, while maintaining a firm stand against any tax increases under his watch.
The indexing issue will appear on Tuesday’s ballot, where Question 1 asks voters whether they favor repeal of the annual indexing of the gas tax to the Consumer Price Index. Baker, the Republican nominee, favors Question 1, which would repeal the indexing, while his Democratic opponent, Martha Coakley, favors a “no” vote on the question, which would preserve the indexing.
A broad coalition of transportation advocates, business organizations, and environmental groups favor maintaining the indexing, saying the state desperately needs the funding stream it will establish to pay for road and bridge repairs as well to invest in public transit, bike lanes, and other transportation-related projects.
Baker has chided the Legislature for taking what he calls the easy way out, saying lawmakers should have to take a vote each time they want to increase the gas tax, not rely on the automatic inflation adjustment. But his objection goes further than just taking issue with the process the law put in place; he does not favor an increase in the gas tax by any means.
Baker campaign spokesman Tim Buckley says the Republican nominee, who vowed in a debate on Tuesday night not to support any tax increase, would veto any move to raise the gas tax if Question 1 passes.
The gas tax, which last year’s vote increased from 21 to 24 cents per gallon, had not been raised before that since 1991.
State transportation officials have said Massachusetts needs an additional $1 billion in per year in transportation revenue. The measured passed last year, which included the 3 cent gas-tax increase as well as an increase in the cigarette tax and restructuring of some corporate taxes, will yield an average of $600 million per year for at least five years.
The indexing of the gas tax to inflation, which would begin in 2015, is projected to yield roughly $1 billion over 10 years, according to transportation advocates operating under an umbrella coalition called the Committee for Safer Roads and Bridges. Lizzi Weyant, advocacy director for Transportation for Massachusetts, one of the groups making up the coalition, says without the indexing the state will fall far short of needed funding to maintain and upgrade transportation infrastructure.
“Half the state’s bridges are structurally deficient, and 80 percent of roads are in poor or mediocre condition,” she says. “And the MBTA has been the most indebted transportation agency in the country.” The coalition calls the situation a “challenge to our economic competiveness.”
Baker’s economic development plan calls for an immediate outlay of $100 million in additional funding for local roads, with increases in transportation funding of $25 million each year over four years. But the increases are identified as “pay-as-you-go” funds, meaning they would be used to directly fund projects, not leveraged to issue bonds for larger amounts, as is usually done with big capital projects.
Weyant says the $1 billion anticipated from indexing the gas tax to inflation would allow the state to bond for as much as $6.5 to $7 billion in transportation spending. The $1 billion projection assumes annual increases in the Consumer Price Index of 2.2 percent. That would mean, for example, an increase in the 24 cents-per-gallon tax of about half a cent the first year.
Although Baker has vowed not to raise any taxes, Buckley says he supports the 3-cent increase in the gas tax approved last year. “He’s fine with that,” says Buckley.
