The Indiana House has forwarded to the Senate their recommendations for maintaining Indiana’s roads and bridges.
State Representative Tom Washburne says the bill includes a package of recommendations including a 10-cent hike in the state gasoline tax to help pay for those maintanece costs.
Speaking on WVUT’s Meet Your Legislators program, Washburne says there were some recommendations early on for taking some of the state’s 2-billion dollars surplus to fund roads.
However, a statewide study indicated about 700-million dollars would be needed to maintain the existing roadways.
Washburne says should the state experience an economic downturn they would need that surplus to fund existing needs.
In addition to a 10-cent increase on gasoline, Washburne says the House package includes an increase in registration fees and for electric cars.
The bill now goes to the senate which is expected to make their own recommendations for road funding.