New Mexico residents pay thousands of dollars each year because of the state’s crumbling road infrastructure, state transportation officials told lawmakers Friday.
With the number of acceptable roads declining and the cost of fixing them outstripping funds, the state transportation secretary says New Mexico may need to raise existing taxes or create new ones to fund road projects.
Presently, the state has $5.6 billion worth of needed but unfunded transportation projects, according to the state Department of Transportation’s presentation to the Transportation Infrastructure Revenue Subcommittee at its meeting in Silver City.
The percentage of New Mexico roads in acceptable condition dropped from 75% in 2011 to 69% in 2023, the presentation states.
Deteriorating roads result in drivers paying an average of $2,074 annually, for vehicle maintenance, congestion and safety costs, according to the data. That figure is even higher in the Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Cruces areas.
To pay for the $5.6 billion in unfunded projects, New Mexico will likely need some combination of changing the way the state distributes its tax on vehicle sales; increasing existing taxes and fees; or creating new ones, such as delivery surcharges or road user charges, Transportation Secretary Ricky Serna told the committee.
DOT doesn’t receive recurring funding from the Legislature, Serna said, and when lawmakers do give the agency money, it comes with a three-year deadline attached, which, if not met, can be clawed back and used for other purposes.
The agency tried to address these problems with a piece of legislation in this year’s session that would have raised the state’s weight-distance tax on commercial traffic and vehicle registration fees, and created a new electric vehicle surcharge, Serna said. The state House of Representatives unanimously approved that bill, but it died in the Senate in the session’s final week.
Another way the state could generate revenue would be to raise its 17-cent per gallon gasoline tax, Serna said. A one-cent increase would generate approximately $6.6 million in annual revenue, DOT Chief Economist Michael Morrison told the committee. Lawmakers haven’t changed the tax since 1996 when they lowered it from 20 cents per gallon, Morrison said.
Sen. Antonio “Moe” Maestas (D-Albuquerque) suggested that it would be cheaper for drivers to pay more per gallon of fuel rather than for the expenses resulting from deteriorating roads like new tires, for example.
“It’s just been, in my opinion, a failure of government not to incrementally and reasonably increase the gas tax over the last 30 years,” Maestas said.
