Group calls for change in road use tax distribution

The Iowa Chamber Alliance is calling for a change in how the state divides up “road use” taxes. Dave Roederer is president of the group which represents 15 Iowa chambers of commerce. He says the state has to re-allocate those taxes to bring better economic growth.Every year, the state gets about one-point-four billion dollars for the road use taxes, a large chunk of it from gasoline taxes and registration fees. Among the changes proposed by the Alliance, raising the amount of money that goes into the “primary road fund” from 47-percent to 50-percent.While a three-percent change doesn’t sound like much, it’s three-percent of one-point-four-billion dollars. That’s how much would be taken away from county roads under the proposal. Roederer says Iowa’s leaders have to look at where the population base is and how the money should best be spent.Changing the allocation of road use taxes would take a move by the Iowa legislature. The plan was unveiled by the Alliance today at an Iowa D-O-T meeting in Ames. The Chamber Alliance’s Ron Corbett says the formula used to distribute the road-tax money isn’t working for Iowa today.Census data shows it was urban areas and the neighborhoods surrounding them that grew in recent years. Corbett says the formula doesn’t recognize that growth pattern.He says the formula that allocates the dollars can’t be defended, and is not meeting the transportation needs of today.