Fry defends ‘no’ vote on gas tax increase

It quickly became clear during a Feb. 27 Clarke County legislative luncheon that Rep. Joel Fry, R-Osceola, and Sen. Amy Sinclair, R-Allerton, were unhappy with some of the recent actions of their own Republican party.

The issue at hand is the gas tax bill and how it got approved. The newly-approved bill is raising the state’s gasoline and diesel fuel taxes by 10 cents a gallon.

Committee "switcheroo"

Here’s where the statewide drama first started.

A couple of weeks ago, the Republican Speaker of the Iowa House Kraig Paulsen made decisions to change up the ways and means committee members, which is where the gas tax bill was sitting at. Two of the ‘no’ gas tax voters on the committee were removed and two ‘yes’ voters were put in.

“Reasonable people can have a conversation about whether or not we should’ve passed this gas tax, and reasonable people can arrive at different conclusions, and I’m fine with that. That’s part of the process. Reasonable people can’t be OK with the politics that went into play to get this through,” Sinclair said.

The gas tax bill was passed by the Iowa House and Senate, and last week, Gov. Terry Branstad signed it into approval. The gas take hike went into effect Sunday.

The way the gas tax bill was pushed forward to final approval has definitely angered some Republicans, especially those from rural areas that might not see as much of the benefits from the gas tax.

Voting with constituents

Fry said he was often asked if he voted with his constituents or whatever he personally wanted.

“I voted according to my constituents. I was a no vote,” he said. “I had a ‘five to one oppose the gas tax’ coming in to my computer and to my telephone. That’s across the entire district. I didn’t break it down by county, but that was across my entire district. So, when I had that overwhelming marching orders from my district, I voted no on the gas tax.”

Fry broke down into pieces what the gas tax bill will mean for Clarke County.

In total, Clarke County will raise a little more than a million dollars from the 10-cent gas tax. The county itself will receive approximately $442,000. The city itself will receive approximately $105,000.

Fry said the department of transportation receives 47 percent of the gas tax, and cities and counties receive 53 percent of the tax.

Bridges

According to Fry, he has concerns of the ratio of the department of transportation having approximately 4,000 bridges to maintain, and counties and cities having more than 19,000 bridges to maintain.

“I’m concerned about the proportion of money that this tax raises,” Fry said. “It actually goes back into the department of transportation and not back to what I believe was the intent, originally, of this particular piece of legislation, which was to fix rural roads and bridges.”

Fry also addressed Clarke County supervisors not getting enough funding from the gas tax increase for their budget to fix bridges.

“I don’t know what a bridge costs to put in, but I’m told at this point that $445,000 might get you a bridge and a culvert or two, depending on the size of the bridge,” he said.

There have also been a lot of concerns from rural families who have to commute a lot for work and other services, Fry said, and how the gas tax could create negative impacts.

Formal apology

At the end of the discussion on the gas tax debacle, Fry issued a lengthy apology on the politics of the situation.

“Personally, because of the process in which it took place … I am a member of House leadership, and so for those of you who are frustrated about the process piece, I want to apologize from the House leadership perspective for the route in which it happened,” he said. “I think the discussion about whether 10 cents is the right thing or not the right thing, it should have been phased in or should it not have been phased in, that conversation is really subsided and it’s been much more about the process of politics and how some legislation can move so quickly, yet some legislation seems like it takes a snail’s pace to get it to go anywhere.”