Pasco BOCC Passes 5-Cent Fuel Tax To Fund New Road Construction

By Matt Wiley

Drivers can expect to see slightly higher gas prices in Pasco County beginning next year, as the Pasco Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) has approved a five-cent fuel tax to help generate funds to help build, rebuild and resurface county roads, including four projects right here in the Wesley Chapel area.

During the September 9 BOCC meeting, commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the “Second Local Option Fuel Tax,” which will raise gasoline taxes in the county by five cents above the current combined federal, state and local tax on fuel (diesel users pay an additional Federal excise tax of 6 cents) of 48.9 cents per gallon. However, this new tax will not apply to diesel fuel and the revenue generated also would be shared with the county’s six cities.

BOCC chair Jack Mariano was the lone commissioner who voted no. “Keeping these taxes down is a better way to go,” he said.

District 3 Comm. Henry Wilson, who lost his re-election bid to Mike Wells in the August 26 Primary Election, said that his decision to support the fuel tax hike was difficult because he always has opposed raising fuel taxes in years previous. However, he said that he had to consider the legacy he will leave behind for his children and the citizens of Pasco.

“We have to make a decision that is best for the county as a whole,” Comm. Wilson said.

According to county documents, the reasoning behind the fuel tax increase is to recover $8 million in funds that were reallocated last year from Pasco’s Transportation Capital Improvement Project (CIP) fund to pay for bringing the county’s level of service for the operation and maintenance of the county’s roads back to where they were in 2008. By using those funds, staff told commissioners at the meeting that the county was able to substantially cut down its response time for road repairs.

For example, before 2014, it took the county an average of 46 days to respond to pothole patching and more than 100 days to get to routine tree trimming within road right-of-ways. This year, with the additional funding, crews were able to get potholes patched within a week of being reported and within ten days of the trees needing trimming.

But, by 2018, staff told commissioners, there won’t be enough funds to keep up the continued level of service available now, due to anticipated cost increases and the addition of future roads to maintain. The new fuel tax is estimated to produce more than $120 million during the next 15 years.

By adding the five-cent tax, county staff estimates that it will be able to generate $8.07 million per year. Without those funds, the staff reports that 23 future road projects in the 15-Year CIP and the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)’s Long-range Transportation Plan would be in jeopardy or could be delayed.

Among those projects are the widening of Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54) from S.R. 56 north and east to Progress Pkwy. (delayed from 2022 until 2026), as well as an automated traffic management system (traffic cameras, electronic message boards) between Progress Pkwy. and Curley Rd., which would be delayed from 2017 to 2025.

The currently unfunded $83.9-million extension of Overpass Rd. from Boyette Rd. to U.S. 301 also could be affected, as well as the unfunded widening of County Line Rd. between U.S. 41 and Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., which alone is estimated to cost more than $96 million.

Staff told commissioners that the tax will cost the average driver an additional $37.50 per year, an estimate based upon driving 15,000 miles-per-year at 20-miles-per-gallon.

The current “First Local Option Fuel Tax” of six cents and “Ninth Cent Fuel Tax” of one cent are used strictly for routine road maintenance. Under Florida law, the county may only levy a total of 12 cents per gallon in fuel taxes.

Pasco Democratic Party chair Lynn Lindeman opposed the fuel tax hike at the meeting. “Citizens are making less and you’re asking them to pay more,” Lindeman told the BOCC.

Daniel Hamm spoke on behalf of Pasco Republican Party chair Jim Mathieu, who also opposes the tax.

John Hagen of the Pasco Economic Development Council said that raising the fuel tax will help the county in its quest to become a “premier” Florida county.

“Now we have the opportunity to test what ‘premier’ means,” Hagen said. “Everyone’s worried about the cost, but roads are important. Development goes where roads go, and jobs go where development goes.”

Dist. 1 Comm. Ted Schrader said, “The (fuel) tax is a user fee and the one that makes the most sense.”

Dist. 3 Comm. Kathryn Starkey also supported the fuel tax. “I don’t like raising a tax, but it’s my responsibility to make sure that this county has its best foot forward.”

Dist. 2 Comm. Pat Mulieri said that passing the fuel tax was “doing the right thing and leaving the right legacy in Pasco” when she retires at the end of her current term.

“Well, I don’t want to sit through one of these again, but truly, I support the five-cent (fuel) tax,” Comm. Mulieri said.