A top House lawmaker today called Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposed 19-cent gas tax hike unlikely to receive further attention from the Legislature for the foreseeable future, after the Senate rejected the measure Tuesday, and as legislative officials voiced annoyance with Patrick for trying to play a larger role in deliberations.

“I think that the gas tax is off the table for now,” said Rep. Joseph Wagner, House chair of the Transportation Committee.

Patrick, who has said he would veto a sales tax if the Legislature does not present him with adequate reforms, turned up the heat on lawmakers Wednesday afternoon, accusing those voting for higher taxes of disrespecting voters.

“This really isn’t about State House dynamics between the Governor and the Legislature – the public could care less about that,” Patrick said in a statement to the News Service. “What they do care about – particularly those families struggling to find a job or keep one, or pay for their home or their kids’ education – is being asked to pay more for the status quo. To ask them to dig deeper into their pockets for higher taxes without first adopting meaningful reforms is thumbing our nose at them.”

Patrick two years ago asked for higher corporate and local options taxes and in January proposed a 19-cent per gallon gas tax, calling the revenue urgently needed, along with a passel of reforms.

Legislative officials said they had been displeased with Patrick administration’s efforts to gain rare Executive Branch access to closed-door deliberations between lawmakers discussing a major transportation overhaul. Patrick aides asked for working documents, which would have been “unprecedented,” according to one legislator. Those requests were swiftly rejected, according to sources with knowledge of the discussion.

Lawmakers said they regarded the overtures as trespassing.

“That just wasn’t going to happen,” said an anonymous lawmaker familiar with the request.

The snub came before Patrick sent confidential letters to both transportation and pension conference committees advising them of his preferences in each bill. Some lawmakers interpreted the letters themselves as intrusive.

“I’m reluctant to talk about things because we are in conference,” said Wagner, the lead House negotiator. “I will say this, since we have been in conference, I have not had any contact with any members of the administration, about conference.”

On March 19, in a tentative deal to postpone pending toll hikes, Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Robert DeLeo announced intentions to delay the first stage of $100 million worth of toll hikes, address a transportation reform bill in the next two weeks, and enact a transportation financing bill by July 1.

“As the matter now stands before the conferees, the Legislature has had this matter for 90 days, give or take, and the administration had promised it since the fall of 2007,” Wagner said. “I am comfortable that our pace is fairly quick when compared with the administration’s pace over the course of some 15 months or so, give or take. May have been 16 months.”

In November 2007, Patrick’s then-transportation chief, Bernard Cohen, said he wanted a transportation overhaul in place by March 15, 2008, and Patrick said the reforms would be filed “in the very near future.” Patrick filed the legislation Feb. 24, 2009.

Wagner refused to discuss details related to conference committee deliberations.

Both the House and Senate voted to set aside $275 million in their budgets for transportation needs, funded by a 25-percent sales tax hike. The Senate on Tuesday voted 34-6 to reject the 19-cent increase to the existing 23.5-cent-per-gallon rate Patrick had filed. A second vote, on an 11-cent increase, fared slightly better, with 30 nays and 9 yeas.

“I’ve made my position on the issue very clear over a period of time, that a determination of that would be made by the number of votes that there were or were not for a gas tax,” Wagner said. “And I think the vote in the Senate yesterday made quite clear that the votes are not there in the Legislature to move forward with increasing the gas tax … at 19 cents.”

Patrick has repeatedly threatened to veto the sales tax hike, from 5 percent to 6.25 percent, if lawmakers did not pass satisfactory overhauls of the state’s transportation, pension, and ethics systems. So far, Patrick has found flaw with different versions of all three.

Patrick’s press aides declined comment.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1173740

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