Gas prices in Washoe County will be increasing starting July 1. This happens every year when the fiscal year starts.
The Regional Transportation Commission in Washoe County says the price at the pump will go up about 3.5 cents a gallon, that will then go back to them for projects.
Which they say will bring the total cost per gallon to about 57 cents from the indexing fuel tax.
Another half of a cent will be added to that RTC amount that will go towards the local government, bringing the total increase to about four cents a gallon.
"Honestly, I want to say I share the same concerns because no one likes taxes to increase for any reason especially when it is on something like gasoline," said Miranda Hoover, State Executive with the Energy and Convenience Association of Nevada.
As of June 30, according to AAA, the national average for gas is $3.185. The average for the silver state is $3.795. Washoe County is $4.221.
This price is before the increase, but Hoover says Washoe County has the highest fuel tax in the entire state.
However, the RTC says that all the money stays local and goes towards the roads.
"You've got projects like the Arlington Bridges happening right now. You got Sparks Boulevard widening that starts up this summer," said Paul Nelson, Government Affairs Officer with RTC Washoe. "All of these road projects that are going up around town is in large part because of the indexing."
For those who are wondering where this came from, it was decided on by Nevada voters about 17 years ago.
"So back in 2008, the voters approved a ballot question and that approved this measure that allows gas prices to go up every year to really match up with inflation - because every year you see costs go up when it comes to materials, when it comes to labor for construction and this allows us to keep pace with that," Nelson said.
Once it passed on the ballot, the Nevada Legislature signed it into law in 2009 and it went into effect in 2010.
Since the tax was put into law, it's raised more than $850 million towards the roads.
It's helped build out Veteran's Parkway, work on McCarran Boulevard and Pyramid Way, and is now paying for a portion of the Arlington Bridges construction.
The RTC says having this local source of revenue is crucial because federal money is not a guarantee.
"We do get a portion of federal funding every year and that's a set amount; but there's a lot of funding that we have to apply for discretionary grants and there's no guarantee we're going to get that funding. So there's a lot of projects that we're looking at—Sun Valley Boulevard and the Keystone Bridge—which we applied for funding for that, but we won't know for sure if we get that money or not," Nelson said.
Nelson says that there is no end written for the fuel tax index.Â
"There's no sunset on it, so what we'll see is prices will more than likely go up every year - but the nice thing about it is you take 2021, 2022, and you see huge increases in inflation, but it didn't impact our gas prices too much because it's based on a 10-year rolling average. So you're going to see minimal increases every year," he said.
RTC says it would be very complicated to get the index to stop given that it was voted on in an election and put into law.
However, even if the fuel tax were removed, Washoe County and Nevada would still be high compared to the rest of nation.
"We're so reliant on California right now that when California prices go up, when refineries leave California and simply close down, Nevada has the number one impact and we have the highest impact across the country and Arizona is right behind us on the impact status any time something happens in California," Hoover said.
RTC says they are going to look into ways to make up for lost revenue from electric vehicles who obviously don't have to pay at the pumps.
