The House Transportation Committee on Monday approved an updated version of a plan supporters hope will generate nearly $1 billion in new revenue for roads and bridges.
The committee voted overwhelmingly to approve House Bill 170, a key vote that came after setbacks last week. The latest changes to the bill dealt with local taxes. Gone from the bill are plans to phase out local special option sales taxes and replace them with excise taxes.
Instead, HB 170 will leave SPLOSTS and similar taxes levied by school districts alone. But any municipal option sales tax or local option sales tax used to rollback property taxes will no longer apply to motor fuel while the rate will increase from 1 percent to 1.25 percent.
The bill still will abolish existing state sales taxes on motor fuel and implement a new 29.2 cents per gallon excise tax on gas, plus a 33 cents per gallon tax on diesel. It also ends the state’s $5,000 income tax credit for the purchase of electric vehicles and creates a new annual registration fee for electric cars. The fee is $200 for personal vehicles and $300 for commercial cars, trucks, vans and buses.
The vote sends the bill to the Rules Committee, which decides what bills make it to the House floor. The committee meets again Tuesday morning and could vote to put HB 170 on the House floor Wednesday.
Sponsored by Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Roberts, R-Ocila, HB 170 has had a rocky few weeks. After overwhelmingly passing Transportation earlier this month, Roberts had to later send the bill back to committee to address more concerns from cities and counties.
Last week’s wintry weather cancelled another planned committee meeting, delaying progress further.
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