State services – including schools – are effectively paying to maintain Utah’s roads, to the tune of about $600 million a year, according to Senate President Wayne Niederhauser.
Elected leaders in Utah, most of them conservative Republicans, always are reluctant to increase taxes — particularly so in an election year.
But they may worry too much. A plurality of voters would approve of paying more per gallon of gas to support Utah’s road network, according to a new poll by The Salt Lake Tribune and the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics.
The poll found just under 50 percent of registered voters support a higher gas tax.