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Friday, December 23, 2011

Maryland Fuel Tax Revenues Decline

Over the past few days SBYnews has performed an analysis on Maryland's finances and have been posting some of its key economic indicators. Today, we give our readers an overview as to help explain why our Counties roads and bridges are in such disrepair.

At the end of 2010 - Maryland's fuel consumption continued its downward spiral for the 4Th consecutive year. Maryland's fuel consumption peaked in 2007 - (2.73 billion gallons) and continued to decline to its present level of 2010 - (2.65 billion gallons).

In an attempt to try and balance Maryland's Budget - our officials in Annapolis have decided to transfer some of these funds to Maryland's general account and thus reduce significant funding amounts to the counties and municipalities.


Bottom line -

Recent History: Previously, Gasoline and Motor Vehicle Revenue Account revenues, otherwise known as HUR, had been distributed to MDOT (70%) and local jurisdictions (30%). The Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act of 2009 (Chapter 487) reduced the local share of HUR by $161.9 million in fiscal 2010 and $101.9 million in fiscal 2011 and transferred that revenue to the general fund. The Budget and Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Chapter 484) further altered the allocations to provide for an ongoing distribution of revenues from the local share of HUR to the general fund. Under Chapter 484, for fiscal 2012, HUR would have been distributed as follows: (1) 20.4% to the general fund; (2) 71.5% to TTF; and (3) the balance to the counties, municipalities, and Baltimore City.

*Source: Maryland Department of Legislative Services Fiscal Note
http://mlis.state.md.us/2011rs/fnotes/bil_0002/hb0072.pdf

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I this not predictable? our government has given away billions of dollars to push fuel-efficient vehicles which use less gas. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot...

Anonymous said...

To 11:07 - You are absolutely correct. And what do you think next year will bring with GM's latest release Volt, Nissan's - Leaf, Toyota - Prius, among many others.

As far as GM's Volt - Maryland officials better hope they increase funding for the fire departments because they are certainly going to need it with all of the reported fires caused by the Chevy Volt. I saw where they informed owners not to plug these vehicle into their homes because of possible fires.

Anonymous said...

I thought the economy was suppose to be getting better. From all of the economic indications I have seen locally - it has gotton worse here on Delmarva.

Anonymous said...

Watch the Daily Times report just the opposite. Yet they will not disclose the real data.

Anonymous said...

For the life of me - why doesn't our Governor ever disclose the real facts instead of trying to fabricate a different story.

I have heard O'Malley claim that the ARRA stimulus money was essential to balancing our state budget. Now I can see why. But what happens after that expires - what then.