Immediate Diesel Tax Hike Loses Votes in Arkansas House
"My main objective is to make sure we get 4 cents. It wasn't my idea to make it four all up-front. That was a Senate amendment," Rep. Bobby Glover said Monday. "I told them I would make a good-faith effort to get that done and I did."
Three weeks ago, the House approved a 3-cent-a-gallon diesel increase to be phased in over three years. Since then, trucking companies have agreed to a 4-cent-a-gallon diesel tax increase but want time to absorb a 22 percent tax hike, said Lane Kidd, president of the Arkansas Motor Carriers Association.
rucking industry.
That's when Glover started talking with senators.
Sen. Wayne Dowd, who sponsored the amendment to tax truckers more severely than drivers of passenger vehicles, said he made no bargain with the trucking industry but agreed to phase in
he increase after it became apparent the bill would not pass the House with his amendment.
"If it won't pass the House, then we need to back up and do it in some form that will pass," he said.
Negotiations centered on imposing an immediate 2- or 3 cent-a gallon diesel tax increase and phasing in the rest in a year.
"At this point, any phase-in is better than this immediate 22 percent tax hike on the industry," Kidd said. "The fact that everyone is at least beginning to talk about what phase-in schedule it should be is encouraging."
Fuel-tax increases are part of a package that also includes Gov. Mike Huckabee's $575 million bond issue to speed up interstate improvements. The bond bill is awaiting the governor's signature for referral to a special election.
Together, the bills would pay for repairing more than 300 miles of crumbling interstates, pump millions of extra dollars into non-interstate highway construction that started in 1991 and allocate millions more for county roads and city streets.
