Fuel Tax Transparency Amendment
I'm Bob Larson. As the state House of Representatives passed the transportation budget late last Wednesday night, Representative Cary Condotta was happy he was able to piggy-back an amendment that started out as a bill ...CARY CONDOTTA ... "We talk a lot about transparency and in my travels around the United States I noticed that in some places they've have stickers on gas pumps that actually tell people what they're paying in taxes."
Condotta says it was a good idea that should be done here ...
CARY CONDOTTA ... "But I had to figure out a way to do it without spending a lot of money cause resources are a little tight around here right now. So, I gotta give compliments to the Department of Agriculture who said, look, we go out and inspect these pumps and we could actually put these stickers on when we do the inspections. Walla! That cuts the cost down to just about nothing except the cost of the sticker itself."
Condotta says that was a price they could live with ...
CARY CONDOTTA ... "But it looks like to me we're going to be pretty steady on this gas tax for a while. I don't expect we're going to be voting on another one any time soon. So, I thought, what a great idea. For next to nothing, we can have total transparency with our taxpayers and put some stickers on pumps and people will know exactly who's taxing on what fuel and how much they're being taxed. So, hopefully we'll start off tonight with something we CAN agree on and do this for next to nothing."
With time in the current session running out, Condotta changed House Bill 2180 to an amendment to the transportation budget, and it passed unanimously.