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June 17, 2011

New transportation budget approved

By Mainebiz News Staff

Lawmakers have approved a $637 million, two-year highway budget, which is now headed to Gov. Paul LePage to sign.

The plan will fund the paving of 1,200 road miles, cut 66 vacant positions in the Department of Transportation and Secretary of State offices, and end gas-tax indexing in 2012, according to the Portland Press Herald. Indexing was a mechanism adopted a decade ago to make the gas tax, which pays for about 70% of major road and bridge improvements in Maine, rise automatically with the Consumer Price Index. Previously, the Legislature had to vote to raise the tax.

Some Democrats argued that eliminating the indexing of the gas tax, on top of not borrowing through bonds, as LePage has vowed, will not be good for the upkeep of the state's road and bridges. But Republicans said that preventing the gas tax from increasing will save drivers about $12.5 million over the next two years.

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