10-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax vote could be a factor in 2018 elections

Of the lawmakers who voted for the road funding plan that would raise gas taxes, 23 had signed a pledge with Americans for Tax Reform to not raise taxes. Only three lawmakers who signed the pledge voted against the legislation.

While GOP leaders pegged the increase as a “user fee,” Andy Downs, director of the Fort-Wayne based Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics, expects to see the pledge brought up in campaign ads in 2018.

“I think you can rest assured that challengers will use that,” Downs said. “Whether the challengers will be sufficient enough to pay (for ads) remains to be seen.”

The revenue from the rate increase will go towards funding a 20-year road plan that is expected to raise $1.2 billion yearly by 2025. The plan, signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb Thursday, also includes a number of tax increases on diesel and commercial vehicles, studies on the future of tolling and a number of BMV fees.

Democrats, fiscally conservative groups and convenience stores criticized the tax throughout the legislative session.

The Democrats main fodder against the bill was that Republicans have been cutting taxes for corporations and those in the upper class in the last five years. Under former Gov. Mike Pence, lawmakers made tax cuts worth $600 million a year – half of what they would have needed to fund the roads plan.

Those cuts include a 5 percent reduction in the personal income tax, passed in 2013, the elimination of the inheritance tax in 2013, corporate tax cuts passed in 2013 and 2014 that will be fully implemented in 2022 and financial institutions tax cuts passed in 2013 and 2014.

Even more were made under former Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Rep. Dan Forestal, an Indianapolis Democrat and ranking minority member of the House roads committee, saw the previous tax cuts paired with the gas tax as a shift of the burden from upper to the middle and lower class, even though Republicans said the tax cuts the state made benefited all Hoosiers.

“To do it in a way that shifts the tax burden onto the backs of hard-working Hoosiers so that large corporations can keep their tax cuts is just patently unfair,” Forestal said.

Even economists, such as Ball State’s Mike Hicks, who agree with the concept of raising the gas tax for road funding, acknowledged the tax burden would be higher on lower-class individuals.

Fiscally conservative groups, on the other hand, favored the previous tax cuts and saw the gas tax increase as a huge shift in the policy beliefs lawmakers had established for years as an elected official and during campaigns.

"Most of the Republicans who are in the House and Senate promised their voters they would not raise taxes: some in writing, some in person," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. "Did any of the Republicans thinking of voting for another tax hike on consumers say they would do this when they asked for their citizens’ vote in the last election? If not, why double-cross their voters?”

But how much sway should the pledge to not raise taxes have?

Rep. Thomas Washburne, R-Inglefield, mentioned he signed the pledge back in 2012, and wondered what it evens means after a couple of cycles.

Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville, didn’t even remember signing the increase, but emphasized people should trust the lawmakers they elected to make an educated decision.

Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, said the fact that lawmakers had studied the issue thoroughly convinced him to vote for the legislation. He acknowledges that his decision to vote for a gas tax increase could be seen as breaking the pledge.

“That’s one of the things I own. I accept that,” Lucas said. “But again, I wasn’t going to stick to a pledge just for the sake of sticking future generations with our current problems, our current responsibilities.”

While Downs is all but certain Hoosiers will be hit with campaign ads on the topic, despite being over a year out from elections, he doesn’t know if it will be enough to boot anyone out of their seat.

“It will hurt them, however given the broad support of the road funding plan, given the number of jobs created, the fact that roads will be better, a lot of people will get over the fact but they will be beaten up for it,” Downs said.

The plan was fairly popular with Republican lawmakers, and even garnered some support from Democrats despite initial push back. The Senate’s final vote was 37-12, with six Republicans voting against the measure, and the House voted 69-29, with eight Republicans rejecting the idea.

House Speaker Brian Bosma (R-Indianapolis) dismissed concerns that members who signed the pledge could pay a political price.

“Many signed the pledge many years ago and did not understand it was a lifetime blood oath,” he said. “Most of the members of this chamber have voted to cut taxes numerous times. In fact, the cuts that have been voted on in just the last two years have far outweighed any increase in the tax gas here.”

Indy Star reporter Tony Cook contributed to this story.