http://tags.library.upenn.edu/tag/transportation_policy+gas_tax PennTags Feed http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/20418 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/20418 Officials hope voters might favor gas tax boost to fight warming<br />Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer<br />Friday, October 5, 2007<br />Regional officials are taking a close look at trying to increase the Bay Area's gasoline tax by as much as 10 cents a gallon and believe voters might agree to it as a way to help combat global warming, The Chronicle learned Thursday.<br />Although the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission has been able to ask voters for a higher gas tax since 1997, a decade of polls indicated there was little chance such an unpopular idea would ever secure the necessary two-thirds approval in the nine Bay Area counties.<br />Now, however, with public concern building over climate change, the electorate might not be so opposed to a new gas tax as long as voters see it as a way to help the environment, officials said.<br />A 10-cent-a-gallon increase in the Bay Area could generate an estimated $300 million a year or more to pay for transportation-related projects. Although the money could be used for roads, the emphasis probably would be on public transit and efforts to reduce auto pollution.<br />&quot;People will kill their puppies to stop global warming these days,&quot; said Dave Snyder with a smile. Snyder is transportation policy director at the San Francisco Policy and Urban Planning Association, a think tank.