State gas tax increase could help speed up road projects in Hoover, mayor says

The new gasoline tax increase approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor last week should provide the city of Hoover with an additional $600,000 a year, Mayor Frank Brocato said.

But the biggest impact for Hoover could come from the extra money the state and counties will get, Brocato said. He’s hoping the state and Jefferson and Shelby counties will choose to use some of their increase for road and bridge projects in Hoover.

Brocato said he’s “just like the next guy” and “not looking to pay any extra tax,” but he thinks the city will be able to do some good things with the extra money.

The Legislature agreed to raise the state tax on gas and diesel fuel by 10 cents per gallon, beginning with a 6-cent increase on Aug. 31 of this year, a 2-cent increase on Oct. 1, 2020 and a 2-cent increase on Oct. 1, 2021.

Beginning in 2023, the tax then could be adjusted up or down with the National Highway Construction Cost Index and could increase up to a penny every two years.

The state tax is now 18 cents per gallon for gasoline and 19 cents per gallon for diesel.

The city of Hoover currently gets about $2.5 million each year from state and Jefferson County taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, so this increase should raise that to about $3.1 million per year, said Melinda Lopez, Hoover’s chief financial officer.

Hoover City Adminitrator Allan Rice said city officials will have to decide whether they want to use the extra money to do more repaving projects each year or use it for new road construction projects.

But Hoover officials also are interested in the bigger pots of money that the state and Jefferson and Shelby counties will have for road and bridge projects.

State officials have estimated the tax increase will generate about $320 million per year extra once it is fully in effect. About 67 percent of that money would go to the Alabama Department of Transportation.

Counties will get 25 percent, with 45 percent of that allocation distributed evenly among the counties and the rest being based on population. Cities will get 8 percent, with 25 of that allocation being distributed evenly among cities and the other 75 percent based on population.

There are a lot of road projects in Hoover that the city can’t afford to do on its own, Brocato said. One of those is a new Interstate 459 interchange just south of the John Hawkins Parkway exit, near South Shades Crest Road.

Brocato said another big priority is finding a new way in and out of the Trace Crossings community. He hopes Jefferson County can help the city with funding for that project, he said. “Certainly we will ask them to participate.”

Also, Jefferson County already has numerous projects in the books to complete in Hoover, including the expansion of South Shades Crest Road and Patton Chapel Road and an extension of Galleria Boulevard on the south side of John Hawkins Parkway, connecting to Old Montgomery Highway. Hopefully, the extra money the county will receive will help speed those projects along, Rice said.

The city has identified more than 20 road projects in the draft version of its comprehensive plan that officials believe will improve traffic flow in the city.

The city will never be able do to all of those projects, but the additional gas tax money hopefully will escalate the timeline for achieving some of them, Rice said.