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NH House stands tall with gas tax vote

By Staff | Mar 7, 2013

When we urged New Hampshire lawmakers last month to resist the “knee-jerk reaction” to reject a hike in the gas tax simply on the grounds that it would raise taxes, we knew it was a tall order.

After all, in today’s highly polarized political climate, raising taxes on anything couldn’t get you 50-50 odds in Vegas even if you could guarantee the new revenue stream would lead to a cure for an incurable disease.

So we took particular pleasure at the news Wednesday that the House of Representatives voted, 207-163, to approve legislation that would raise and target much-needed money to fix the state’s deteriorating roads and bridges.

The bill (HB 167) now goes to the House Ways and Means Committee, where it could be modified, before returning to the full House for a final vote.

And while prospects are bleaker in the Republican-controlled Senate – Sen. Chuck Morse, R-Salem, said afterward that the bill is “dead on arrival” there – Wednesday’s House vote at least keeps it in play for another day.

Under the amended bill championed by Rep. David Campbell, D-Nashua, the state’s gas tax would rise 15 cents over the next four years – 4 cents a gallon in the first three years, 3 cents in the fourth – and raise nearly $1 billion over the next decade to complete the widening of Interstate 93 and make other overdue repairs to the state’s aging infrastructure.

If approved, it also would be the first increase to the state’s gas tax in 22 years, when the average price for a gallon of gas was $1.13. In fact, the last time the gas tax was raised, the corner office was occupied by Republican Judd Gregg, who bumped it up twice during his two terms in office.

Currently, New Hampshire’s 18-cent tax is the lowest in New England and among the 10 lowest in the nation.

While Campbell’s bill passed on a largely party-line vote – only 15 Republicans supported it, while 10 Democrats voted against it – it will no doubt face similar arguments in what is certain to be a more hostile Senate. Among them:

• A tax hike is a tax hike, regardless of its intentions.

• The jump from 18 cents to 33 cents over four years represents an 83 percent tax hike.

• Projected over 10 years it represents a nearly $1 billion tax hike.

• And, as driven home by former House Speaker William O’Brien, R-Mont Vernon, at a Tuesday press conference, voters will remember the names of lawmakers who vote for an 83 percent, $1 billion tax hike when they go to the polls 20 months from now.

That’s all well and good as politics go, of course, but none of these arguments addresses the basic problem: Namely, the state is so far behind in maintaining its basic infrastructure, that state transportation officials estimate it would cost $615 million to fix all the state’s dilapidated roads and another $680 million to firm up its “red-list” bridges.

Besides, what hasn’t gone up in price since 1991, when a loaf of white bread cost 70 cents, a dozen large eggs $1.10 and ground beef $1.65 a pound?

Is it not at least understandable that the cost of maintaining the state’s roads and bridges – the foundation for a robust economy and keeping and attracting new jobs to New Hampshire – has gone up during that time, too?

Yes, there are plenty of reasons to oppose raising the gas tax.

But doing so without advancing a legitimate alternative would be just plain irresponsible.

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