Both an 11-cent tax on gasoline to fund road work and a one-cent tax on pet food to support the state’s animal welfare program surfaced recently in the Legislature’s committees on transportation and agriculture, conservation and forestry, respectively.
The tax on pet food was to be partially offset by a reduced licensing fee for dogs, with the idea being that the new funding mechanism would spread the support of the program among more pet owners. The Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee supported the measure with a 12-1 vote on May 19, but reconvened on Friday to reconsider.
The tax increase was included in a bill called “An Act Pertaining to the Breeding and Selling of Dogs and Cats,” which resulted from a study group that explored the regulation of dog- and cat-breeding facilities. The committee on Friday approved the rest of the bill, but opted to hold off on the pet food tax provision until the Legislature reconvenes next January.
“We as a committee agreed that over the summer between the two sessions, we are going to look at the animal welfare department and see what other ways we could bring in revenue,” said Rep. Wendy Pieh, D-Bremen, House chairwoman of the committee. “There was quite a lot of response to us about having a surtax on pet food in particular without going through the public hearing process.”
Members of the Transportation Committee met similar resistance recently when they proposed an 11-cent per gallon tax on gasoline and diesel fuel to be implemented over four years while eliminating annual increases that are based on inflation. The revenue would have created a maintenance paving program to fix approximately 600 miles per year on an ongoing basis and a Vehicle Weight Safety Fund for education and funding around the trucking industry.
Most members of the committee agreed that the majority of Maine roads are in desperate need of maintenance paving, work that, because of its relatively short lifespan, doesn’t make sense to pay for with bonds.
The Transportation Committee met Monday to discuss the fuel tax as well as the wider Highway Fund budget, which it has been working on for months. The committee had decided to put the fuel tax increase into its own bill, but found little support among legislators, particularly Republicans.
“The likelihood of it passing this (through the Legislature) is not good and the likelihood of this passing (Gov. John Baldacci) is less than that,” said Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton, Senate chairman of the Transportation Committee. Various members of the committee proposed alternative plans, including one by Damon to raise the tax by 5 cents for two years, as opposed to the original proposal of 11 cents into the future.
Damon’s new plan, which was endorsed by the committee in a 9-3 vote, would retain fuel tax increases that are tied to the annual inflation rate.
Rep. Douglas Thomas, R-Ripley, objected passionately to the notion of any tax increase. He argued that by seeking efficiencies in the Department of Transportation and re-allocating existing resources, the committee could institute a maintenance paving program without new taxes.
“I’d like to make a case that we don’t have a crisis,” said Thomas. “I think we can do a better job about running the department. There’s money in this budget; we’ve just got to find it.”
Bruce Van Note, deputy commissioner of the DOT, took exception to Thomas’s comments.
“I don’t hear a lot of specifics,” he said. “We reorganized. We’ve cut 200 positions over the past five years. Find another agency that has done that. An awful lot of hard work has gone on and we’re saving $20 million in the next biennium because of it.”
Damon’s fuel tax proposal will be drafted into a bill and sent to the Legislature, but it faces opposition there.
“(Republicans) really are quite firm against any tax increases, though we are very cognizant of the need,” said Rep. William P. Browne, R-Vassalboro, the committee’s ranking House Republican.
Meanwhile, the Transportation Committee forwarded the Highway Fund budget to the Legislature with a 12-1 “Ought to Pass as Amended” recommendation.