Faced with little appetite for raising Delaware’s gas tax by ten cents, the Markell Administration is raising Route 1 weekend tolls by a dollar to help pay for road projects.
The move raises about $10 million and DelDOT plans to borrow another $20 million, which will strictly go toward paving projects.
State lawmakers also restored cuts to their Community Transportation Fund accounts, which can be used for different pet projects in their districts.
“I’m reluctant, but I understand the need to borrow $20 million to put into paving,” said Transportation Secretary Shailen Bhatt, noting that he’d rather have a 50-50 split between new revenue and adding to the state’s debt.
Gov. Jack Markell (D-Delaware) and Bhatt’s proposal would’ve raised $100 million dollars annually over the next five years with a mix of raising the gas tax and loans.
But neither was able to convince a single House lawmaker to shepherd the initiative and it never materialized outside of conceptual conversations.
There had also been talks over raising the wholesale gas tax and other transportation related fees, but nothing stuck.
“I’m not thrilled about raising tolls. I’m sure nobody is,” said Sen. Colin Bonini (R-Dover South), but his 11 fellow Bond Bill Committee members didn’t raise their voices.
Bhatt doesn’t need authorization from the General Assembly to hike tolls, but the committee diverted the money to those specific funds.
Bhatt added that despite this boost to help partially restore a 34 percent cut to their paving schedule, he won’t give up on lobbying for some sort of tax or fee increase in 2015.
“I am hopeful that there will be further discussion next year about revenue for transportation, because obviously, $10 million in new revenue is not what is needed,” said Bhatt.
Bond Bill co-chair Rep. Quinn Johnson (D-Middletown) agrees.
“It’s a comprehensive problem that needs to be fixed and there’s a lot of variables in that, from looking at fees that may be outdated to looking at the wholesaler tax instead of the at-the-pump tax,” said Johnson.
With the earmarks, the total transportation capital budget now totals $158 million, although only $128 million of that can go toward new construction.
