COLUMBUS — Senate Republicans on Thursday took a knife to Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed gas tax increase, carving out an additional five cents from the legislation passed by the House.
The resulting six-cent bump would raise far less for bridge and road maintenance than the $1.2 billion for which DeWine had originally hoped.
The hike, which he proposed at 18 cents per gallon, became 10.7 cents in the House and, finally, six cents in the Senate transportation committee.
DeWine was already unsatisfied with the House’s cut to what he had described as a minimalist proposal to remedying Ohio’s infrastructure woes.
"If you think and your constituents think the roads are bad now, you haven't seen anything yet if we don't take action," DeWine said in his first State of the State address.
If passed by the full Senate, the legislation would go before a committee of lawmakers from both chambers. That committee would create a transportation budget acceptable to both groups.
