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House and Senate negotiators unveiled a compromise Tuesday that would redesign and raise the state's gasoline tax by 5 cents a gallon initially, but allow revenues to increase automatically if fuel prices rise.

The deal would also allow counties to ask voters to approve a quarter-cent per dollar sales-tax hike for local roads and mass transit.

The compromise was explained to the House Republican Caucus on Tuesday, which was receptive, but took no formal vote on it. Negotiators say the full Senate, and not just its negotiators, must still buy into the plan.

Discussions come as the state is trying to cover a projected $11.3 billion shortfall in priority road and transit projects through 2040 — and the House and Senate have been pushing much different plans.

The Senate had proposed an increase of 10 cents per gallon in the gasoline tax, which had not been raised since 1997 from its current 24.5 cents a gallon.

The House instead pushed a proposal to convert the cents-per-gallon gas tax to something like a sales tax, essentially charging a percentage of the price of gasoline. It proposed to match the current tax initially — allowing members to say they did not vote for a tax hike — but revenues could increase rapidly with gas prices.

Senate leaders opposed that approach as sneaky, and possibly leading to huge tax hikes. Some senators also opposed House proposals for the quarter-cent sales-tax hike subject to voter approval — which again could allow lawmakers to say they technically did not approve that tax hike.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Johnny Anderson, R-Taylorsville, said the House and Senate negotiators have found a middle ground.

The deal would use the House idea of reforming the gasoline tax into more of a sales tax. But it would be set initially to raise tax by about 5 cents a gallon, half of what the Senate proposed.

The complicated new system would ask the State Tax Commission once a year to figure out the average wholesale gasoline price for the previous 12 months, and then apply a percentage tax to it — which may be about 12 percent, but that is still being negotiated, he said.

Final rates would be designed to increase prices by 5 cents a gallon initially, he said.

Figures from the State Tax Commission would be converted into a new cents-per-gallon tax annually — providing a possible increase in the tax once a year, Anderson said.

The deal would include a guarantee of at least as much revenue each year as the previous year, in case gas prices drop. Also, the final bill would have a ceiling to prevent too big of an increase, probably no more than a total tax of 40 cents a gallon, he said.

Another part of the deal would be to accept a Senate proposal to earmark $40 million a year in new revenues to again start to fully maintain rural state highways. The state in recent years decided to halt regular maintenance of lesser-used roads to afford work on busier highways, mostly in urban areas.

Anderson said House negotiators support those proposals — including the need to approve a clear tax hike — as long as the Senate would also support a quarter-cent hike in sales tax for transportation, which counties could ask voters to approve.

Revenues from that local tax would be split among cities, counties and transit agencies — such as the Utah Transit Authority. "We need it desperately," Anderson said.

Until everyone buys into the compromise, the House and Senate are keeping separate bills for their original plans alive. In fact, Anderson's HB362, his original House proposal, passed 9-3 Tuesday afternoon in the House Revenue and Taxation Committee on its way to the full House.

"We will not give into them until they give into us," Anderson said.

Rep. Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, told the House GOP caucus, "We can't keep doing what we're doing. It will lead us into a bigger and bigger hole."

Officials say the gas tax has lost an estimated 40 percent of its buying power to inflation since it was last raised in 1997. Also, as gas mileage improves for cars and more of them use alternative fuels, that tax produces less revenue. Meanwhile, the cost of maintaining roads has also increased.