Elkridge Hess Dealer Protests Gas Tax in Annapolis

Gov. Martin O'Malley defended his proposed six percent sales tax on gasoline before House and Senate committees Wednesday, saying Maryland needs to address crumbling transportation infrastructure and crippling traffic congestion.

"As a state, we now have the longest daily commute in the country," O'Malley told a joint Ways and Means and Environmental Matters committee hearing. He also testified before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.

Maryland currently charges a 23.5-cent per gallon flat tax on gasoline sales, a tax that hasn't changed since 1992.

The tax is the 29th highest for gas in the country. The proposed legislation would push Maryland to the 6th highest.

The revenue would be funneled into the Transportation Trust Fund, charged with maintaining Maryland's roads, bridges and the state's portions of the Metro system.

However, opponents of the gas tax, including Keith Madsen, who runs the , protested the measure, stating that the money doesn't go where the citizenry is going—and that, he said, is on the road.

“The Transportation Trust Fund goes to BWI Airport, the Port of Baltimore and the light rails,” Madsen , when he began collecting hundreds of signatures through  at his Towson and Elkridge stations.

On Wednesday, Madsen joined colleagues from the Washington, Maryland, Delaware Service Station and Automotive Repair Association in protest on Lawyers' Mall before the hearing on the tax, which he told The Examiner was an "'absolute affront to Maryland motorists.'"

The tax would be phased in at 2 percent each year for three years. At its full 6 percent, it is slated to raise $613 million per year.

Gas tax supporters said infrastructure projects that address safety, congestion and job creation have all been put on hold because Maryland lacks funds devoted to transportation.

According to the Maryland Department of Transportation, the top construction and Baltimore would cost $12 billion to complete.

"There's a huge backlog of projects that have been idling," said O'Malley spokeswoman Raquel Guillory. "There's a whole slew of what's needed...we need to find a way to fund these projects that is sustainable."

O'Malley showed a willingness Wednesday to compromise on the gas tax as long as some other form of funding can be agreed upon, such as a 1 cent increase on the regular sales tax dedicated to the Transportation Trust Fund.

"We can't keep kicking the can down the road on transportation projects," O'Malley said to the joint House committee hearing. "We don't want to look back at our crumbling roads and bridges....Yes, we are all against taxes, but we pay for that too, and in this case, doing less will cost us more."

Donald C. Fry, president of The Greater Baltimore Committee sits on O'Malley's Blue Ribbon Committee on transportation and wants to see the gas tax money go toward needed projects.

"It should be projects that are identified that provide economic benefit and job creation, or help address congestion and of course, safety," Fry said.

John A. Andryszack testified against the bill on behalf of the Maryland Motorcoach Association.

"Our typical size motor coach company is 21 motor coaches," he said. We use 350,000 gallons of fuel each year....if this goes up, we're not going to buy that amount of fuel in Maryland ... you're going to hurt our business and we're going to buy our fuel elsewhere."

Elkridge Patch editor Elizabeth Janney contributed to this article.