Panel: Hiking gas tax by penny is top pick

BOISE (AP) - A panel investigating how to shore up Idaho highway funding ranks boosting the gas tax by a penny as its top pick.

The 15-member Governor's Transportation Funding Task Force says the hike, from 25 cents, would raise $8.2 million annually to bolster road and bridge maintenance.

The panel's other top choices, released Tuesday, include a proposed 1 percent sales tax on fuel to raise $22.5 million annually, as well as a plan to index the fuel tax to inflation.

Had that been done since 1996, drivers would pay a 34 cent tax per gallon now, producing $74 million for roads.

The task force has met for more than a year, after Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter failed in the 2009 Legislature to get lawmakers to back registration and gas tax increases.