Governor Patrick MA Gas Tax Hike
Governor not certain on gas tax hike – Patrick’s options range to 29 cents
Governor Deval Patrick is also considering a system that would charge drivers based on the miles they travel. Governor Deval Patrick is also considering a system that would charge drivers based on the miles they travel.
By Matt Viser
Globe Staff / February 10, 2009
Governor Deval Patrick is considering raising the state’s gasoline tax by as much as 29 cents per gallon, which would at once give Massachusetts the highest state gas tax in the country while generating enough revenue to potentially rid the Massachusetts Turnpike of tolls.
Governor Deval Patrick is also considering a system that would charge drivers based on the miles they travel.
But administration officials, responding yesterday to a leak reported in the media, said the governor also was considering a gas tax increase as low as 5 cents and that no decisions have been made.
The gas tax in Massachusetts is 23.5 cents per gallon, which has not been substantially increased since 1991. A 29-cent increase would bring the state’s tax to 52.5 cents per gallon. New York currently has the nation’s highest state gas tax, at 41.3 cents per gallon.
Patrick last month released a budget that includes a host of tax and fee increases, on everything from candy and soft drinks to alcohol and car registrations. Conspicuously absent was a gas tax increase, which transportation specialists and lawmakers have advocated as the fairest way to solve the state’s chronic shortages of highway and bridge money.
Administration sources refused to speak on the record yesterday or to make any top officials available for interviews, including Transportation Secretary James Aloisi. The Associated Press reported the contents of a draft proposal that included a 27-cent per gallon increase. Two administration officials later said that was only one of many options for an increase that range from 5 cents to 29 cents.
The reports yesterday angered top lawmakers with transportation expertise who have not been briefed by the administration but who have been prodding the governor to take a leadership role on a gas tax for months.
“I come from the school where the number one rule is no surprises,” said Representative Joseph Wagner, a Democrat from Chicopee who has been the House’s top transportation official. “These proposals are surprises. It’s not my preferred way of doing business.
“Perhaps it’s time for the administration to forward to the Legislature a proposal for reform,” he added. “Then we won’t see piecemeal things going on with tolls and taxes without any substance of proposed legislation.”
Senate President Therese Murray, who has not seen any plans and said the governor did not bring it up yesterday in a leadership meeting, also offered a tepid response.
“We’ve been very clear: reform before revenue,” Murray said in an interview. “There hasn’t been any reform. We filed a 268-page reform, and we expect it to be looked at and enacted before we go to revenue.”
In addition to removing tolls, the added gas tax could also be used to pay down the debt of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
How much debt is paid – and how many tolls are removed – would depend on how much the gas tax is raised, according to administration officials.
Deval Patrick is also considering a new system that would charge drivers based on the miles they travel. Those trips would be measured by a chip installed in a vehicle inspection sticker.
Patrick’s plan would also streamline the state’s myriad transportation agencies into four distinct divisions: highway, rail and transit, aviation, and the Registry of Motor Vehicles. He also plans to outline overhauls to the MBTA’s pension system.
Patrick has downplayed talk of a gas tax increase and sought to focus on toll increases as a way to pay off debt. In recent weeks, he has said that if there was a gas tax, it should be high enough to not only avoid the latest round of toll increases but to remove toll booths completely, or avoid sharp increases in the future.
The Turnpike Authority board gave preliminary approval to toll increases in November that would double cash tolls to $7 at the Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels and raise tolls at the Weston and Allston-Brighton booths to $2 from $1.25.
Former House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi in November endorsed a gas tax increase instead of toll increases, but his successor, Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, has been less definitive.
“Whether it’s a toll issue, whether it’s a gas tax issue – those all have to be on the table,” DeLeo said in a recent interview. “The days [are over] of saying that no, we can’t have tolls, we can’t have gas tax, we can’t have either.”
Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.
