Gasoline taxes are on the rise — just not in Connecticut

From CT Mirror.

Connecticut motorists haven’t faced a gasoline tax increase in six years and only two in the past 12. …

“The gasoline tax simply does not provide the reliable revenue we need, period,” Lamont said when he made his first pitch for tolls back in February. “Gasoline tax revenues have been flat for 10 years and are expected to begin declining as cars become more efficient, and as the sales of electric vehicles increase.”

But Joe Sculley, president of the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut — the state’s largest trucking association — said Connecticut’s poor track record with fuel tax receipts explains why it isn’t following the example of other states when it comes to raising gas taxes or installing tolls.

Between 2006 and 2014, about $1.3 billion in receipts from Connecticut’s wholesale fuel tax was spent on non-transportation programs.

Voters approved an amendment to the state Constitution in 2018 creating a legal “lockbox” designed to ensure fuel tax receipts are not diverted for transportation, but Sculley said skeptics of this supposed safeguard are plentiful.

“In many other states, motor fuel taxes are specifically earmarked for roads and bridges,” Sculley said, adding that many people believe “we have no such guarantee in Connecticut.”

See the complete article from CT Mirror online.