“A Time For A Dime” was an overarching theme to the gas tax issue at this year’s Transportation Day meetings in Des Moines and state legislators aren’t coming to a common ground to resolve it.

42nd District Republican State Senator Jerry Behn says there’s no partisan slant on the gas tax issue which is making it difficult to get anything done.  He states that it is a Ways and Means Committee issue and currently it is not up for discussion during funnel week this week.

Senator Behn points out that he doesn’t see a bill coming this session due to political stands that parties are making.  He notes that even if a bill made it to the schedule for the full Senate floor to debate, it is still up to the majority leader of the Senate, Democrat Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs, to officially bring it up for debate.

What lobbyists and county officials are wanting is an incremental increase in Iowa’s gas tax to equal out to a dime over the course of a number of years to help repair and rebuild roads and bridges in the state.  Behn says that even if you make an increase in the gas tax, that is taking money out of the hands of the people.  He believes that if gas prices were lowered then more legislators would be open for a discussion on the gas tax issue.