Pelath on House GOP road plan: they want to raise taxes, we do not

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath from Michigan City today issued the following statement after Indiana House Republicans finally revealed their plan to fund our state’s deteriorating infrastructure:

“House Democrats already have a simple and responsible plan: every penny you pay at the pump goes toward fixing your state and local roads and bridges. Most Hoosiers are quite surprised that’s not the case today.

“I note that the House Republican plan calls for a partial shift of the gasoline sales tax toward roads. While we think that shift should be total and permanent, there is room for discussion there.

“There is less reason to be enthused about the House Republican call for tax increases. I will be interested to see Speaker Bosma and his leadership team make the case for taking more from taxpayer wallets at a time when we carry a huge state budget surplus.

“Right now, House Democrats aren’t convinced that we need to take any more money from Indiana taxpayers when we already have billions of their dollars squirreled away in the state treasury.

“But it is good to see that all parties with a stake in the game realize that we cannot wait any longer to do something to improve Indiana’s state and local roads – our economic circulatory system of jobs, goods, and services. Now we have a series of proposals that can be fully debated on their merits.

“So now the debate begins, and if the end result heals our broken infrastructure, then this session will have been a success.”