Higher gas tax touted to help fund Pinal highway improvements
by Mark Cowling | Florence Reminder & Blade Tribune
Pinal Partnership President and CEO Harold Christ kicks off the group’s breakfast Friday in Florence.
In a discussion of transportation needs, the words “state funding” don’t come up often enough, and there’s a good reason for that, attendees at a Pinal Partnership breakfast were told Friday.
“State funding lacks significantly in the state of Arizona for transportation issues,” Scott Higginson, executive director of the Interstate 11 Coalition, said. Transportation dollars come from gas taxes, which haven’t been raised in 28 years while construction costs have gone steadily upward, he said.
“We’re one of the very, very, very few states left in the country that hasn’t raised its gas taxes,” Higginson continued. But now there is a “significant effort” in the Legislature this year to raise the gas tax. “I would encourage every single person in this room, as you meet with your state elected officials, to tell them you support raising the gas tax for transportation.”
