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Iowa Farm Bureau supports fuel tax increase
A proposal to raise Iowa’s fuel tax by eight to ten cents per gallon has the support of Iowa Farm Bureau.
The tax increase recommendation was made by the Governor’s Transportation 2020 Citizen Advisory Committee. It could generate as much as 230 million dollars per year to repair the state’s roads and bridges.
Farm Bureau president Craig Lang acknowledges that tax increases are a tough sell right now—but he says those repairs are way past due.
“We’re up to the fight in Farm Bureau. We believe it’s the right thing—we believe it’s the right answer,” Lang says. “Not just for the farmers today, but to put our roads in place that they’ll handle the implements of husbandry and implements for grain handling necessary for in the future.”
Lang says Farm Bureau will make sure that rural Iowa gets its fair share of the funds. “We will make sure that our share gets back to the counties—or otherwise we’ll look to change it next legislative session,” he says.
Lang notes that Iowa Farm Bureau delegates in 2008 passed policy calling for the fuel tax increase to repair roads and bridges. He says it is the right policy for agriculture.
“Hopefully we’ll not have a future where school buses, ambulances and fire trucks are embargoed on county roads during those parts of the spring when the roads were bottomless at one time.”
The fuel tax increase recommendation will be submitted to the Iowa Legislature by the Iowa Department of Transportation by the end of the year.
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