There will be no gas tax increase for Alabama this year, nor in the foreseeable future. The proposed tax hike was pulled from the House calendar when it became clear there weren’t enough votes to pass the Budget Isolation Resolution procedural vote.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Bill Poole, would have increased the tax on gas and diesel by 4 cents per gallon on Sept. 1 and again by 2 cents per gallon on Sept. 1, 2019. There would have been an additional option of raising the tax another 3 cents per gallon on Sept. 1, 2024, if the Legislature were to approve a joint Senate and House resolution at that time. Revenue from the tax hike would have supported a $2.45 billion bond issue for infrastructure improvements on Alabama’s bridges and roads.
In early December 2016, all 67 counties in the state’s Association of County Commissions of Alabama voted unanimously to approve a gas tax increase, but the reception from small business owners has been more mixed. On a 2015 member survey, 44.55 percent of NFIB/AL members said they supported tolls or taxes to fund construction and major reconstruction of highways and bridges in the state, while 41.58 percent opposed and 13.37 percent were undecided.
Either way, after the bill was pulled, House Speaker Mac McCutcheon said, “Gas tax is dead. There’ll be no more gas tax issues during this quadrennial.”
