Gasoline Tax

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. sought the support of General Assembly leaders yesterday for a moderate but incomplete legislative agenda that left lawmakers hungry for specifics about the state's most pressing issues. Democratic and Republican lawmakers who met with Ehrlich at the State House said he all but ruled out proposing an increase in the state's 23.5-cent -a-gallon gasoline tax as he outlined measures he hopes to enact this year to protect the Chesapeake Bay, reduce crime and lower the cost of health care.

Maryland business leaders are growing concerned that Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. will not propose an increase in the gasoline tax -- a measure they consider vital to meeting the state's transportation needs. The governor won't say what he intends to do on the issue. However, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, who supports a 10-cent-per-gallon increase, said that he has been told by administration officials that Ehrlich would not raise the gas tax. Ehrlich has been under strong pressure from Republican lawmakers to leave the gasoline tax at 23 1/2 cents a gallon.

The Maryland Senate's Republican leader predicted yesterday that the majority of his caucus will support whatever decision Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. makes on how to raise money for transportation - even if it means voting for tax and fee increases. Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus said the 14 Republicans in the 47-member Senate are far from agreed on how the governor should go about replenishing the state's Transportation Trust Fund. The Eastern Shore lawmaker said the mix of any revenue package and how the money would be spent will be the subject of negotiations.

Putting aside their usual abhorrence of higher taxes, Baltimore and Washington business groups endorsed an increase in the state's 23 1/2 -cent-per-gallon gasoline tax last night while opposing any effort to limit the use of that revenue to building and maintaining roads. The positions taken by the Greater Baltimore Committee and Greater Washington Board of Trade put them somewhat at odds with the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, which supported a 5-cent increase in the gas tax but asked that it be dedicated to highway projects.

It's spending that has caused state's red ink The more I listen to state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch, the more convinced I become that old dogs can never be taught new tricks ("Leaders to push Ehrlich on taxes," Oct. 18). These folks must really be living in a political vacuum. There is a new sheriff in town, and because of the nature of the Maryland Constitution, Republicans are, de facto, the party in power. And Maryland is in the fiscal mess that it is in because of the Democrats' lack of budgetary restraint.

CAMBRIDGE - The General Assembly's top officers said yesterday that they will place a major tax package on Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s desk next year and urge him to set aside deeply held opposition and let it take effect for the good of the state. "The governor is going to have to compromise on some issues. What he is going to have to do, if he wants to be the governor for all the people, he's going to have to let it pass without his signature," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller.

Comptroller William Donald Schaefer intensified his criticism of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s reluctance to raise the state's gasoline tax yesterday -- accusing his administration of avoiding the issue of how to pay for better roads. Schaefer's message, prompted by public statements last week in which Ehrlich expressed reluctance to raise the tax, came at a meeting of the Board of Public Works. The message itself was not entirely new. Schaefer has publicly supported a 10-cent increase in the gasoline tax for months, and he raised the issue at a board meeting in July.

Democratic leaders in the House of Delegates plowed forward yesterday with an effort to balance next year's budget without money from slot machines, releasing a list of potential tax increases and other moves that could raise $2.1 billion. But the fact that the House Ways and Means Committee reviewed a three-page handout of possible taxes before a room of empty chairs -- instead of a series of bills with testimony from scores of lobbyists -- underscored the difficult prospects for tax increases this year.

Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said last night that he does not intend to push for an increase in Maryland's gasoline tax this year, though he acknowledges that more money will be needed for transportation during his four-year term. Ehrlich and a spokesman disputed published reports yesterday suggesting that he will lobby for a tax increase of 5 cents per gallon. "We have not decided to make it part of our package this year," Ehrlich said in an interview during a reception in his honor at the Walters Art Museum.

Laurence Levitan, Commission on Maryland's Fiscal StructureThe task force charged with figuring out how to pay for Maryland's future needs began looking yesterday at possibly increasing the gasoline tax or other fees to pay for the state's transportation projects. Without increased funding, transportation officials warned, the state will fall behind on repairing aging roads and bridges, and on expanding mass transit, boosting security at airports and the port, and replacing the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.