Group: State must raise gas tax
Advocate (excerpt)

The president of a highway advocacy group said Wednesday that a new study points up the need for Louisiana to increase its gasoline tax. Ken Perret, president of the Louisiana Good Roads and Transportation Association, said the current tax rate “has not only lost track with inflation but is worth less today than when it was instituted.

“The gasoline tax has less than half the buying power it had back in the 1980s,” Perret said in a prepared statement. More efficient cars and trucks mean less gas is needed, he said, “but you can’t build and maintain a 21st century infrastructure on a 1989 budget.”

Motorists here pay 38.4 cents per gallon in state and federal taxes. The state’s share is 20 cents, which includes 16 cents for rank-and-file projects. The other 4 cents are dedicated to 16 projects voters approved two decades ago, including a new bridge over the Mississippi River between New Roads and St. Francisville. Earlier this year a study by the Texas Transportation Institute said Baton Rouge has the nation’s worst traffic congestion among midsized cities.

COMMENTARY: Good luck raising any kind of tax this session. Highly unlikely.