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Show lliglinoy teSsa is i dorkosf In Oiali Utah's motor fuels tax, chief support of the transportation ' fund, appear certain to come I before the 1978 budget ses. i sion of the Utah Legisla. ture, the Foundation notes; 1 The most-talked-ofproposal i would raise the tax from the ! present 7 cent a gallon to 9 cents a gallon. This would ; provide $14.4 million a year in additional funds available to the state program, and $2.. 6 million a year additional to ' cities and counties. Twenty ' states now have gasoline tax rates of 9 cents a gallon or higher. "Utahns are divided on the issue of a motor fuels taj j increase, but many thinking ; citizens on both sides of the ' issue are urging legislators j to study the entire highway financing picture closely and come up with a workable soUi-tlon soUi-tlon as quickly as possible," the Foundation reports. 'Many feel that a too -long delay in meeting existing exist-ing problems could be very : costly in the long run." j Utah's ability to finance its state -administered highway program is declining in relation re-lation to those of other states, according to Utah Foundation, Founda-tion, the private, non-profit research organization. In total highway -user revenues, rev-enues, which finance state highway programs, Utah s position in comparison with other Mountain States and with the national average has changed only slightly over the 1966-67 decade, the Foundation Founda-tion noted in a research report re-port released this week. However, in terms of the amounts available for actual construction, maintenance, and administration of state highways, Utah's position has ' deteriorated. Utah's total highway -user revenues doubled between 1966 and 1976, a rate of increase in-crease slightly below the Mountain States average, but above the national average. But funds available for actual ac-tual state highway programs increased only 50 in Utah over the decade, compared to an average 84 increase in the Mountain States and one of 75 in all of the United States. This situation is largely due to the fact that Utah has turned more of its highway high-way revenues to law enforcement enforce-ment and to assisting local roads and streets, the Foundation Foun-dation points out. Between Be-tween 1966 and 1976, the amount of highway -user revenues allocated to law en -forcement and safety grew more than three and one-half one-half times, two-thirds faster than the average for the Mountain States and a third faster than the average for the nation. The funds for law enforcement here referred refer-red to are those coming from highway -user revenues only. Utah's Highway Patrol is fin- anced entirely from High-' High-' way -user revenues, but some i other states may also use i other sources of funds for highway law enforcement. , Highway funds allocated to i local roads and streets also 1 increased much faster in i Utah than in most other ' states. Utah's collector road program, one of two major state supports for local roads and streets came into existence exis-tence in 1970 and was a major factor in the increase in this category. While a major reason for Utah's problem in funding its state highway program is the increasing amounts devoted de-voted to law enforcement and to local roads, it does not appear feasible that funds for these purposes should be cut down. "Actually, both the law-enforcement-safety and local lo-cal road programs are them -selves in difficulty and appear ap-pear to need more money than is available under present pre-sent funding formulas," the Foundation report notes. Inflation has been a major factor in reducing the effectiveness ef-fectiveness of highway dollars, dol-lars, but inflation has been felt in every state. However, a comparison of highway funds available in 1976, in terms of 1966 dollars, indicates Utah suffered above -average impact with regard to its state program. In constant dollars, Utah had 28 less money for its state highway program than in 1966. The Mountain States and the U. S. average showed show-ed declines in constant dollars, dol-lars, 1966-1976, but the decline de-cline in the Mountain States was only 11 and the U.S. average was 16. Proposals to increase |
