An Iowa House Subcommittee passed a bill for a new gas tax which may not get the full support of the legislature.

The new gas tax would allow for a three cent raise for each of the first two years and four cents in the third year for a total of a ten cent raise overall.

Republican State District 24 Senator Jerry Behn says he will not support the gas tax due to the state spending road infrastructure funds on unnecessary projects.

He spoke to Greene County Supervisor Vice-Chair Guy Richardson and County Engineer Wade Weiss at last week’s Transportation Day in Des Moines and told them that he believes it’s a spending problem.

He gave the example of wasting money to building a rest area at the north end of Ankeny by Interstate 35 when there’s a gas station/rest area just a couple of miles south of the construction location.  Behn explains about why he’s not in favor of raising the gas tax.

“But I don’t believe that hard-working Iowan taxpayers should have to pay more out of their back pocket when currently, we can illustrate a lot of wasted dollars.”

Due to federal regulations, the head of the Department of Transportation told Behn that they had to implement another rest area.  So Senator Behn says he’s writing a letter to the federal representatives and senators urging them to allow Iowa to apply for a waiver so the state can obligate road use funds how they want to spend it.