The Vermont House gave preliminary approval Wednesday to the annual transportation bill.
Now headed toward final passage Thursday, H.488 contains provisions to amend the gasoline tax and moderately decrease spending on road paving.
The shortfall happened, in part, because gas prices plummeted from $3.86 per gallon in 2013 to $2.38 in 2015. Vermonters are also driving less, and when they do drive, they’re doing so in more fuel-efficient vehicles, so they’re buying less gasoline.
In response, this year’s T-bill keeps the 2 percent TIB fee on the tax-adjusted retail price of gasoline, but when gas prices fall to about $2.08, the fee stays at a flat 4.15 cents per gallon.
House Transportation Committee chair, Rep. Patrick Brennan, R-Colchester, said the fee change should not be construed as a move by the Legislature to increase gas taxes.
“If gas prices are $2.56, we get [at least] 4.15 cents,” Brennan said. “If gas prices are $1, we still get 4.15 cents [per gallon]. It stops further revenue loss.”
The committee would maintain the existing floor under a second tier gas tax, which funds the Transportation Fund. That tax ranges between 13.4 cents per gallon and 18 cents per gallon, depending on the price of gasoline.
On the spending side, the bill cuts state funding by $1.5 million for paving projects, $1 million for labor costs and $700,000 for maintenance. Federal funding will fall by $8.3 million for the year, and the state’s 20 percent match drops by $2.1 million.
The cut in state funding for paving amounts to 15 miles of roads at $100,000 per mile, and doesn’t require cuts to major road reconstruction. Transportation Secretary Sue Minter has a list of road projects that could be delayed until next year to save $1.5 million, she said.
Labor cuts will also be achieved largely through keeping vacancies open at the Agency of Transportation, where there are about 1,300 employees.
“Every project we do, communities are essentially waiting for them,” Minter said. “Every community has a great need for road and bridge repairs.”
Minter said the agency is closely watching how Congress will handle policy surrounding the national transportation trust fund, which she said is set to become insolvent in May, and will affect infrastructure funding at the state level.
The agency’s total budget for fiscal year 2016 would be $630 million, according to Minter, which amounts to a $50 million decrease from 2015.
Study committees
The T-bill calls for an eight-member Transportation Revenue Study Committee to look at ways to overhaul the state’s model for funding transportation infrastructure.
The group would be required to meet by June 15 to study how other states have funded infrastructure without fuel taxes and recommend new ideas for Vermont.
“It simply isn’t the right answer for the future,” Minter said of gas taxes. “We need to look at everything. People are not driving as much as they used to. Hopefully it’s because they’re doing more walking and biking.”
Minter cited efforts in Washington state and Oregon to tax drivers on miles traveled rather than fuel consumed. But she said finding methods to enact those ideas took a long time to roll out — and using a GPS to track mileage might raise privacy concerns.
The bill also calls for a study of bus service from the Amtrak station in Albany, New York, to Manchester via Bennington.
The bill also directs the agency to study the feasibility of commuter rail service between Montpelier and St. Albans.
