Branhagen: "Gas tax hike will pass"

The Iowa legislature has begun working on a bill that would increase the state gas tax by 10 cents per gallon.  The measure would provide about $215 million in additional revenues, with 34 percent of the increase in revenues going to county governments.

Subcommittees in both the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate held hearings on the measure last week and sent the bill to the full House and Senate.

State Assemblyman Josh Byrnes, whose district includes Freemont, Burr Oaks, Orleans, Bluffton, Lincoln and Madison townships in Winneshiek County, is predicting that a full House committee will hear the bill sometime this week.

Meanwhile, Winneshiek County's other State Representative, Darrell Branhagen, is predicting the gas tax increase will be passed into law.  "I predict the passage of a 10 cent per gallon gas tax increase within the next month. It will not carry a lot of complications like automatic adjustments for inflation or other baggage."

Branhagen says after speaking with the Boards of Supervisors in Winneshiek, Fayette and Clayton counties, along with their engineer staffs and the private companies that assist with construction, he is convinced that they have done practically everything that can to maintain roads and cannot sustain the levels of normal maintenance without an increase.

Branhagen also notes there has been only a one cent increase in the last 23 years, and this legislature's action will barely make up for the real price inflation during that period.