Legislation to increase fuel taxes in Oklahoma won approval from the Senate Transportation Committee late last month, and if approved by voters,
would result in the first fuel-tax increase since a penny hike in 1989.
The plan in Oklahoma would increase taxes on gasoline from the current 17 cents per gallon to 22 cents, with diesel climbing to the same level from 14 cents.
Sixty-percent of the money raised would go to the state highway program, with the rest going to counties, cities, railroads, public transit, and airports. With the additional $145 million per year the taxes would generate, Oklahoma would have the revenue to back bonds for highway construction, according to supporters of the bill.
Richard Curtis, executive director of the National Accounting and Finance Council of the American Trucking Assns., estimates that 10 to 12 states have either passed fuel tax increases or are considering them.
But trucking officials say their industry could be devastated by the combination of state and federal tax increases on top of rising oil prices amid the current world turmoil. The ATA has long said that for every penny increase in fuel taxes, 100 trucking companies go out of business across the nation.