Committee amends 3¢ gas-tax bill, approves it for passage as amended

The Finance and Taxation Committee amended House Bill 13-82, a proposal to increase the fuel excise tax by 3 cents and create a special fund for cities, counties and townships, then voted to advance the bill as amended.

Representative Haggard told the committee he revised allocation language so that the new fund would use the state’s existing highway distribution formulas rather than a newly created formula. During debate members argued about whether the proposal should exclude "non oil producing" counties from receiving funds; Representative Porter and others said excluding counties that pay the tax but would not receive proceeds would be unfair. Representative Haggard and others said the bill’s intent was to direct new revenue to local governments rather than the state general fund.

A motion to remove language carving out non oil-producing counties failed on a roll call. The committee then approved Representative Greenheck’s motion for a do pass on House Bill 13-82 as amended. The roll call for the do pass recorded the final tally as 8-5-1 in favor of the amended bill.

Committee members asked staff to ensure the statute cites the correct distribution formulas (the bill as amended points to the highway distribution fund formulas and subsection references were discussed). Representative Haggard said more concise cross-references to existing statute would reduce ambiguity.