State gas tax opponents plan to gather in Raleigh next week to protest the next gas tax increase scheduled to begin in July.
Bill Graham of Salisbury, chairman of N.C. Conservatives United, heads the rally. Graham said thousands are expected to attend the gathering on May 9, the first day of the state Legislature's short session.
Legislators already are discussing whether to suspend the impending July increase because of high gas prices.
Rep. Stephen LaRoque (R/D-10) has little hope for seeing the tax suspended or reduced.
"It's very unlikely to happen under current leadership," he said. "[Gov.] Mike Easley won't support it. The only way to stop the transfer [from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund] is to use other funds. We could use the surplus and stop taking money from the trust fund."
The state has taken $3.5 billion from the trust fund since 1990, LaRoque said, while estimates of this year's budget surplus range from $600 million to $900 million.
Kinston City Councilman Van Braxton favors the gas tax, but he too wants the transfers halted. Braxton is the Democrat candidate for the state House seat in District 10.
"If they'd quit transferring the money out of the trust fund, and left it in there, it could decrease the gas tax," Braxton said. "I know the state came down on us because we transferred money out of our electric fund into our General Fund. They stopped us from doing that. I think it works both ways - the state ought to stop transferring money that was earmarked, and was a user's tax from gas, transferring it out of the Highway Trust Fund and putting it into other areas."
The gas tax amount depends on the wholesale cost of gasoline. The last tax increase was almost 3 cents. The next increase is likely to be more since oil prices are reaching record highs.
"When gas is $3 a gallon, one or two or three cents gas tax really doesn't make up a whole lot and people are going to be driving less," Braxton said. "I do think the gas tax is important because we use the money. We patch our roads and probably one of the most frequent calls I get are from people wanting to patch a hole in front of their house or the street in front of their church, or those type things. The gas tax money comes back to us to do that kind of work. If we don't get the gas tax money, we don't have the money in our [city] budget to do that."
Kinston is not keeping up now with the roadwork it needs to do, he said, and if the gas tax is cut, even less work will get done.
"The gas tax, to me, is a good tax because it is a user-based tax," Braxton said. "People who drive on our roads and buy gas pay for the repairs to the roads. My biggest beef is taking that money and using it for other things."
North Carolina pays the third highest gas tax in the nation, according to statistics compiled by the Tax Foundation. The state's tax is 30.15 cents per gallon, considerably higher than taxes in adjoining states. Virginia's gas tax is 7.5 cents; South Carolina's is 16 cents and Tennessee's gas tax is 20 cents per gallon. (Neighboring states' tax rates were reported as of Dec. 31, 2005. North Carolina's gas tax figure rate is current, and includes the Jan. 1 increase.)
Gas taxes in North Carolina are supposed to go into the Highway Trust Fund to build and improve roads. However, the U.S. Department of Transportation lists the state as No. 7 in the nation for spending the least amount of money to improve roads "not in good condition."
Virginia spends the least, at $11,289 cents per mile; South Carolina is No. 8, spending $19,662; Tennessee, at No. 12, spends $24,427 per mile. Georgia, which spends the most money in the U.S. on road improvements per mile, spends $321,994, according to federal reports.
Check it out
For more information on N.C. taxes, visit:
www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/245.html
For more information on the gas tax rally, visit:
www.stopthegastaxhike.com
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