Jamie Munks
The State Journal-Register
A pair of Springfield aldermen want to impose a local motor fuel tax that could funnel more than $1 million per year into a city infrastructure fund. Ward 4 Ald. John Fulgenzi and Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin asked the city’s legal staff this week to draft an ordinance that would levy a 2-cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline purchases in the city of Springfield.
If approved, Springfield would follow in the footsteps of the city of Decatur, where the city council this week approved a 5-cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline that takes effect in April. Numerous other municipalities in Illinois also add an extra city tax on motor fuel purchases.
McMenamin is open-minded about how the tax is structured, but he has suggested a 2-cent tax for unleaded gasoline and 1-cent-per-gallon diesel fuel tax to rack up money to pay for infrastructure needs such as streets and sidewalks.
A 2-cent tax could bring in roughly $1.2 million per year. The plan also could include clause that would eliminate the tax when gasoline prices climb to a certain amount – $4 per gallon, for example.
“We’re very open-minded on this,” McMenamin said. “We want to reach a consensus.” McMenamin called the 2-cent proposal “modest.”
The idea was tossed out during one of the city budget planning sessions earlier this year and gained some momentum this week with the Decatur action and the recent drop in gasoline prices.
Evanston, Naperville, Joliet, Rock Island and Carbondale are among the other Illinois municipalities with gasoline taxes. Chicago and Cook County have per-gallon taxes of 5 cents and 6 cents, respectively. DuPage, Kane and McHenry counties all levy 4-cents-per-gallon taxes on motor fuel purchases.
Local gasoline taxes are on top of a 19-cent-per-gallon state motor fuel tax for unleaded gas and 21.5 cents per gallon for diesel fuel, and a federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon on motor fuel and 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel fuel. Illinois also charges sales tax on motor fuel.
Infrastructure needs
The city is winding down a three-year infrastructure ramp-up, aimed at catching up the city on necessary improvements. That work has been funded in large part with bonds, which the city will repay over the next 15 years with revenue from a half-cent sales tax increase that went into effect in 2014.
After the ramp-up, the city is in “much better shape … with more preventative maintenance and management,” Public Works Director Mark Mahoney said.
The city still lacks funding for modernization projects, such as upgrading streets with storm sewers and converting oil-and-chip roads to asphalt. “That is where additional funding is desperately needed,” Mahoney said.
In general, McMenamin thinks the city should be reluctant to propose raising taxes “without resolving its pension debt problem. But the sudden and severe decline in gasoline prices presents a unique opportunity,” he said. With Springfield as a tourism destination, the tax wouldn’t just come out of residents’ pockets, but visitors as well, McMenamin said.
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Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 