MANSFIELD — State representative Mark Romanchuk shared his concerns about Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed gas tax increase Friday morning at a Regional Manufacturing Coalition meeting in Richland County.
While Romanchuk, who represents 2nd House District, comprising of all of Richland County, recognized a need to maintain the state’s highway system, he voted against transportation budget and its 10.7-cent gas tax increase that recently came out of Ohio’s House of Representatives. It was a cutback from DeWine’s proposed 18-cent increase.
The house settled last week on a 10.7-cent per gallon increase for the state’s gasoline tax and a 20-cent per gallon increase for its diesel tax. The gas tax would be phased in over two years, and the diesel tax implemented in three years.
“Right away, that was a problem for me. In the past, they had never bifurcated those rates. If you put six cents on one, you put six on the other one. If you put 10 cents on one, you put 10 cents on the other one,” Romanchuk said. “The cost on diesel. That’s a strike to our economy and our industries, therefore, I voted no.”
Several audience members nodded their heads in agreement, as he explained the gas and diesel taxes as burdens for manufacturers, which will likely have to pass the cost along to their customers.
“When I brought that up, I’m sorry, but it just fell on deaf ears. There’s not a lot of business people there,” Romanchuk said.
He criticized those making “multi-billion dollar decisions” without any analysis, as a business might do.
“There’s no tool that we have in the legislature to even do an analysis,” Romanchuk said.
Also in his presentation, Romanchuk recognized the reasoning behind the proposed gas tax.
“We have the fourth largest highway system in the country. We have a pretty good highway system. If you travel around maybe to just our surrounding states, maybe Michigan, Pennsylvania and Indiana maybe, it becomes clear, we have a pretty good highway system here,” he said. “And it’s one thing to build it, but it’s another to keep it up and properly maintained.”
He noted the last gas tax increase was in 2005, when an increase of 6 cents per gallon was phased in over three years.
“The other issue is inflation in regards to construction material,” Romanchuk said.
Revenue, on the other hand, has remained flat. He attributed this to better gas mileage.
The transportation budget is currently under review by the Ohio Senate.
