Local legislators support gas tax increase

By: 
Erin Sommers Graphic-Advocate Editor

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State Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, R-5th, campaigned against raising any taxes.
But when the time came for the state Senate Transportation Committee to vote on a proposed 10-cent increase, Kraayenbrink opted to throw in his support, helping to move the measure ahead.
It wasn’t an easy decision for the freshman senator from Fort Dodge. What helped him the most, he said Friday, was a discussion he had with the state Department of Transportation director. Kraayenbrink said he pointed out some examples of projects his constituents felt were not good uses of state funds, such as new rest areas near Ankeny, some bike trails and plots of wildflowers along highway on-ramps.
Those funds were committed before the current DOT director was in office, Kraayenbrink learned, and because the money was federal matching funds, had Iowa not completed the projects, it would have had to refund the federal money as well as the money state officials had committed to the work. The state isn’t planning to commit to projects like that in the future, the DOT official told Kraayenbrink. 
Read more in the Feb. 25 edition. 

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