From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
MONTGOMERY — Governor Kay Ivey’s proposed gas tax increase has passed the House by a vote of 84-20. The bill was opposed by 18 Republican and two Democrat representatives.
The House first passed HB1 and HB3, which re-establishes the Joint Transportation Committee and adds accountability to ALDOT.
House members were able to add amendments to HB2, which allow concrete to be used for state roads and revise the city populations every five years to determine the amount of revenue that will be forwarded to cities. The current bill will use the population numbers from the 2010 census, but will be revised in 2020.
An amendment offered to remove the indexing in the bill, which allows the tax to continue to increase up to 1 cent every two years based on construction cost, was tabled and not added to HB2.
Several amendments were offered to force county commissioners to publicly support the bill before their county would receive funding from the gas tax, but those amendments were tabled as well.
The bill is expected to be presented to the Senate on Tuesday. If it passes the Senate without a reduction in the 10 cents per gallon tax and is signed into law by Governor Ivey, Alabama will have the 21st highest fuel tax in the country.