THOMASVILLE | The Thomasville City Council ultimately took no action Monday night on resolutions that would oppose or support N.C. Senate Bill 235 and N.C. House Bill 399 — bills that either suspend the state’s gas tax altogether or look to cap it at its current rate of 32.5 cents per gallon.
The council opted not to approve a resolution presented to them that would have opposed the two bills by a 6-1 vote. Councilman Neal Grimes cast the lone nay vote.
Senate Bill 235 proposes to suspend the gas tax and look for other economic incentives and tax expenditures to offset and help fund road maintenance and construction while House Bill 399 would cap the tax. The bill would place a 15-cent tax on the portion of the gas tax that is adjusted every six months according to wholesale gas changes. A flat rate of 17.5 cents is also added and does not fluctuate.
In essence, the council agreed to disagree on each bill and subsequently opted not to endorse either one.
“I think their sentiment was they were in disagreement with one or both,” said Thomasville City Manager Kelly Craver. “They felt like the proposed resolution as it stood, they could not support it.”
By capping the tax, drivers would save an average of 20 cents per week, and the state would lose around $100 million, according to the N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Coalition.
Grimes, who also chairs the city’s transportation committee, warned that not adjusting the gas tax could put pressure on dwindling maintenance dollars for road repairs.
“North Carolina does have a tremendous amount of mileage of state-maintained roads,” he said, “second only in the nation to Texas. And the alternative to the state maintaining roads and being able to get revenue to maintain the roads is passing a lot of that maintenance to the municipalities and the counties. Instead of paying a couple of cents more for a gallon of gas, you may be taxed a little more on your property in order to generate some revenue for road maintenance if we had to do it locally. While it’s not a popular thing, I would be in favor of allowing the gas tax ceiling to rise.”
Councilman Scott Styers hesitated to speak for the council as a whole, despite the overwhelming vote to dismiss the resolutions, but said a unified council voice on such matters can be beneficial to legislators.
“We got caught up trying to support or oppose it, and probably the truth is if you poll the seven council people, they each have individual feelings about what point that tax should be capped if it all,” he said. “Frankly that’s the job of the Legislature to determine what that cap would be. Legislators hear from individuals, as they should. What sometimes doesn’t happen is they don’t always hear from individual communities on how those individual communities might be impacted.”
Speaking to the fears of every local government that would come with the responsibility of funding secondary roads if gas tax money is shortened, Styers said a classic catch-22 emerges.
“What you’ve done is lowered the state gas tax, but you may put cities and counties in a situation where they have to find other ways to raise that same revenue,” he said. “You’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. Somebody in the state of North Carolina is going to have to pay for it, and it’s just a matter of what way.”
Councilman David Yemm said he would have voted to cap the tax given the opportunity.
“We have one of the highest tax rates on gasoline, and reports come out that say we have the second rated worse roads in the nation,” Yemm said. “Where is all that money going? Where are they (the state) wasting it? Fix the wasteful spending first before taxing everyone more money to fix a problem.”
By David Bodenheimer
Published: Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 3:36 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 3:36 p.m.
