Panel Approves Transportation Package, Goes To Full House
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A proposal to hike funding for roads and bridges by more than $50 million in its first year is headed for a vote in the full state House of Representatives, but the bill will likely require further legislative negotiation before its finished.
The House State Affairs Committee on Monday passed a modified version of the Senate’s transportation bill, also voting to include an increase in the maximum speed limit on interstate highways to 80 mph. The full House will take up the bill on Tuesday.
The governor’s director of policy and operations, Nathan Sanderson, said he anticipates that the House and Senate will have to go to conference committee this week to iron out the differences. Aside from an amendment to the measure to limit gas tax increases to 2 cents per gallon for three years, Sanderson said the committee’s changes “really strengthen the bill.”
“On the whole it was good process,” Sanderson said of the changes the House committee made. “We’re really close to coming up with a final package.”
Transportation funding is likely the most hotly debated issue lawmakers will consider during the 2015 session. Tax increases require two-thirds legislative support to pass.
The proposal the committee took up is a modified version of the transportation plan Gov. Dennis Daugaard originally proposed, which raises road and bridge funding through increases in fuel taxes, fees and other assessments. It had already been approved by the Senate.
The committee amended the bill to further raise vehicle license plate fees and give the counties the authority to increase the wheel tax more than initially proposed. The additional vehicle license plate fee hike means millions of dollars in increased revenue, but the committee also limited future revenue by reducing the number of years that the gas tax would increase from eight to three.
Lawmakers on the panel hope to find more money in the session’s final days.
Senate Majority Leader Tim Rave said a conference committee to hash out the differences is “all but a given.”
Rave said he hopes there’s middle ground on the fuel tax increases but said he’s concerned about the House’s increase in the vehicle license plate fees.
Committee member Rep. Mike Verchio, a Republican from Hill City, said he hopes the eventual increase is about 10 cents per gallon.
“I think I know what’s going to happen,” Verchio said. “It’s going to get worse and it’s not going to get better. … We’ve got a hole in the dike the size of a watermelon but we’re going to stick an orange in it.”
One other amendment would increase the maximum interstate highway speed limit in law from 75 mph to 80 mph. Secretary of Transportation Darin Bergquist added that the state Transportation Commission has the authority to set lower speed limits.
