The gas tax, snow removal and upcoming highway projects were all discussed by Secretary Bhatt and Civic League members. Bhatt says half of the proposed gas tax will be used to manage the state's remaining debt service. "We'll be down at the end of this fiscal year to about $850 million. So we've reduced the debt by about 30%, which is a big deal. And because our debt is down 30% we've actually freed up about $25 million a year," says Bhatt.
He says the budget includes some $3 million to add sidewalks around the state. Bhatt adds that thanks to the state's investment DART paratransit service is the best in the country. "It costs us $50 million a year to provide paratransit in the state. And that is for about 8,000 riders. We provide transit like nobody else does, better than any other state or transit agency," Bhatt says.
Bhatt was presented with a Civic League proposal which suggests a way DelDOT could add some $50 million to its coffers by taxing oil offloaded at the Great Stone Anchorage near Bowers Beach.
The Civic League 2007 Buck a Barrel Resolution ~
WHEREAS: The Controller General's Office has projected estimated revenues from such a tax at $23.4 million in FY 2008 and $28.6 million in FY 2009; and
WHEREAS: The Great Stone Anchorage in the Delaware Bay is reputedly the only sheltered east coast port between Maine and Texas capable of accommodating oil tankers with drafts as large as 55 feet; and
WHEREAS: Lightering of such tankers - - transfer of bulk product to barges or tankers of lesser draft to deliver product to refineries on the Delaware River and elsewhere on the eastern seaboard - - has been ongoing at the Great Stone Anchorage since before the June 28, 1971 effective date of Delaware's Coastal Zone Act (CZA); and
WHEREAS: Corporate entities involved in such lightering have never been granted CZA permits, and only one such entity (Maritrans) has been granted an Air Quality permit covering the activity; and
WHEREAS: In 2005, Maritrans requested an increase in the maximum amount of lightering permissible under its Air Quality permit(1) beyond the 100 million barrel ceiling (12 month rolling average basis) then permissible; and
WHEREAS: Imposing a $1 per barrel tax on oil lightered at Great Stone Anchorage would produce revenues in the neighborhood of $100 million per year; and
WHEREAS: Since a barrel of crude oil produces about 26 gallons of gasoline (along with other hydrocarbons), a $1 per barrel tax on lightered oil would have an impact on the price of gasoline no larger than 4 cents per gallon; and
WHEREAS: Because the revenues from such a tax would be spread over more than just Delaware, a tax of $1 per barrel of oil (less than 4 cents/gallon on gasoline) would produce more than three times as much Delaware revenue as the 5 cent per gallon additional tax proposed by Governor Minner.
NOW THEREFORE IT IS RESOLVED BY CIVIC LEAGUE FOR NEW CASTLE COUNTY THAT
A tax no smaller than $1 per barrel of oil lightered at Great Stone Anchorage in the Delaware Bay be imposed with an effective date no later than September 1, 2007 and that the first $1 per barrel of such revenue be earmarked for Delaware's Transportation Trust Fund.
ADOPTED (in concept) without dissent
General Membership Meeting of May 15, 2007
Articles:
- Questions for DelDOT
- Workforce Housing Debate
- Fogerty's Approach to Planning
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