Heeding a call from Sen. Robert Plymale, D-Wayne, to take bold steps for state highways funding, the West Virginia Senate on Tuesday adopted a plan to raise nearly $290 million a year for road construction and maintenance - primarily through a 1 percent increase in the state sales tax that would be dedicated to highways.
"We are at a crisis in West Virginia, as it relates to our roads," Plymale said afterward. "Constituents have been telling me for three, four or five years, 'Do something to fix them,' and they're willing to pay more for it."
Plymale's amendment, adopted on a voice vote, added the new funding onto a bill (SB 555) that would raise between $17 million and $40 million a year by adding 3 cents a gallon to the wholesale gas tax in years when gas prices are at $2 a gallon or less.
In addition to the 1 percent sales tax dedicated to highways funding, raising about $200 million a year, the amendment adopts two recommendations from the governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways:
| Raising Division of Motor Vehicles fees, many of which have not been increased since the 1970s, to raise $66 million a year.
| Increasing the state privilege tax on vehicle purchases from 5 percent to 6 percent, to raise $17 million a year.
Plymale said it is important to take a stand on highways funding, even if the bill might face challenges in the House of Delegates, where some members are reluctant to pass any tax increases.
"I can't tell you I know what will happen in the House. Obviously, they get the same phone calls we do," he said, referring to constituent complaints about deteriorating roads.
Sen. Ed Gaunch, R-Kanawha, who originally proposed the sales tax increase to fund highways with SB 610, endorsed the amendment, saying, "It will be a message to our colleagues and our constituents that we are serious about our roads."
Likewise, Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, said the bill's original proposal for a 3-cent adjustment on wholesale gas taxes "really just nibbles around the edges" and would not make up for the $40 million a year in lost revenue when the wholesale gas tax has adjusted downward in recent years because of low gas prices.
"The bill, with this amendment, actually does something," he said. "We know what the Blue Ribbon Commission said - we need a billion dollars or more [a year] to fix our roads."
The panel, made up of legislators, state and local government officials, industry and labor representatives, scholars and citizens, concluded that West Virginia needs to increase road funding by $750 million a year to adequately maintain its highways and, by another $350 million a year, to complete road construction projects on the books. The $1.1 billion essentially would double existing highways funding.
"I think everybody knows our roads are in disarray. They're not going to get fixed with wishes and spit," Kessler said. "It will create jobs. It will create opportunity in the construction business."
The bill will be up for a passage vote on Wednesday, and then would go to the House.
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazettemail.com, 304 348-1220, or follow @PhilKabler on Twitter.