A bill that proposes a straight ten cent gas tax increase was presented in the Iowa House last week.

District 47 State Representative Chip Baltimore says he’s not in favor of the bill.

He believes that the leadership in both the Iowa House and Senate got together with the Governor’s office to put the gas tax increase to a straight vote to see what would happen.

Baltimore has previously stated that there are other funding streams that need to be considered to solve the lack of funding for transportation infrastructure.  To help with the infrastructure needs, the legislature previously shifted money from rural to urban with the TIME 21 program.  Baltimore points out that those funds haven’t been shifted back to the rural areas.  He also wants to look at how they are allocating federal transportation money and see if something could be changed.

Baltimore doesn’t feel that raising the gas tax is the right choice at this time.

“If we’re not going to have the full discussion about all of how we spend our transportation infrastructure dollars and what we spend it on, then I think it’s kind of putting the cart before the horse to start talking about and adopting a (gas) tax increase.”

He’s concerned that if the gas tax is increased, it won’t help with future infrastructure spending.

“If I had to guess, we’re going to be back in five years saying we still have a shortage, especially in rural Iowa.  Do we need another gas tax increase?  So I just think it’s the wrong approach.  I think there’s a lot more that goes into transportation infrastructure than just revenue and we need to be looking at all those other areas as well.”

If the ten cent gas tax increase bill passes, Baltimore believes it would be effective immediately without having to wait for the next fiscal year to start on July 1.