Lawmakers fail to find road funding
The Legislature's Transportation Committee yesterday adjourned without deciding how to pay for the $25 million needed each year for road paving across the state.
After meeting twice this summer to discuss how to come up with those maintenance funds, the committee members couldn't reach an agreement and have postponed a decision until January, according to the Portland Press Herald. The committee discussed several options over the summer, including raising Maine's fuel tax, adding a penny to the sales tax, raising license and registration fees, and using transportation funds earmarked for bridge repair and other transportation work. But the committee was unable to reach a consensus on a plan.
Earlier this year, the Transportation Committee proposed an 11-cent gas tax hike and then downgraded it to a five-cent hike over two years, but that proposal failed to win full Legislature approval. In June, the Department of Transportation canceled 130 paving projects due to a lack of funding.
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