AASHTO Journal, 20 February 2015
Transportation and financing committees in Iowa’s House and Senate approved identical measures to increase motor fuel taxes by 10 cents a gallon, building on subcommittee approvals earlier this month as state officials try to boost infrastructure investments.
The Senate transportation panel voted Feb. 17 to increase the fuel fees to generate about $215 million a year for the Iowa Department of Transportation to spend on roads and bridges, to cover a shortfall it current revenue compared with infrastructure needs. The House committee gave its approval on Feb. 18.
On Feb. 19, the Senate tax-writing Ways and Means Committee narrowly approved the measure in an 8-6 vote.
That same day on the House side, Republican leaders moved a GOP member who opposed the fuel tax increase off that chamber’s Ways and Means panel in the morning, ahead of an afternoon vote, and put in his place a member who backed the fuel fee increase. Then that committee also narrowly approved the bill, voting 13-12 for it.
Those approvals mean the measure now goes to the full House and Senate for debate expected in the coming week.
Earlier, Gov. Terry Branstad told reporters at a Feb. 16 weekly news conference he would sign the legislation, though in the same discussion he also said he would wait to see the final, potentially amended bill before saying if he’d sign. Branstad also said, “I do support providing additional funding for the road use tax fund.”