COLUMBUS, Ohio - Just hours after Gov. Mike DeWine implored the General Assembly to keep his proposed 18-cents-a-gallon gas tax increase in the transportation budget, lawmakers considered a proposal Tuesday night that would pare back the increase to 10.7 cents over three years.

For diesel, the tax would increase by 20 cents over three years.

DeWine wanted the tax rate to remain the same for gas and diesel vehicles and to go into effect July 1.

Yearly inflation increases, tied to the Consumer Price Index, that DeWine wanted are not included in the bill.

House Bill 62, the two-year transportation budget bill, still has many steps before it becomes a law.

The Ohio General Assembly must pass it by March 31, however, so the legislation is moving swiftly. The Ohio House Finance Committee, the first to work on the bill, is expected to meet again Wednesday night, and will likely amend the bill before advancing it to the floor of the House, which could occur as soon as Wednesday. A full House vote could occur on Thursday.

The state gas tax currently is 28 cents a gallon both for gas and diesel.

The Ohio Department of Transportation said it faces a $1 billion hole in road maintenance and improvement, beginning July 1. The deficit for local governments could be $1 billion to $1.5 billion.

This is due to many factors -- from construction inflation, to debt payments on previous highway bonds, Ohio Turnpike bonding money being spent or committed to projects and vehicles becoming more efficient and drivers spending less on fuel, thus paying less in gas taxes.

Rep. Scott Oelslager, the North Canton Republican who chairs the House Finance Committee, said the committee heard testimony from ODOT and others and thinks their plan is better than DeWine’s.

“We feel there is a need to allocate additional resources to maintain our condition of roads and bridges in Ohio,” Oelslager said. “But our proposal is a more effective plan to provide an equitable distribution of the tax burden and lessen the impact on the consumer.”

Increase details

Under HB 62 now being considered, the phase-in for gas would be:

5 cents on Oct. 1 this year

An additional 3 cents Oct. 1, 2020

An additional 2.7 cents Oct. 1, 2021.

The phase-in for diesel would be:

10 cents on Oct. 1

An additional 6 cents on Oct. 1, 2020

An additional 4 cents on Oct. 1, 2021.

With the fully phased-in increase, the state motor fuel taxes will provide an additional $872 million for transportation funding. Tax revenues are divided 60 percent to the state and 40 percent to local governments.

So the tax would provide $523 million to ODOT and $349 to local governments.

Alternative-fuel vehicles

Lawmakers also are looking at the following registration fees for alternative-fuel vehicles:

Electric vehicles would cost $200 to register.

Hybrids would be $100.

Owners of compressed-natural gas vehicles would have to pay a fuel tax. The bill has a formula to convert CNG to gallons for taxing purposes.

Currently, only liquid natural gas and liquid petroleum products are taxable.

Oelslager said these fees would provide around $2 million a year.

Mass transit

Under Gov. DeWine’s plan, mass transit agencies would get $40 million a year -- a $7 million increase -- in federal transportation funds. They come in the form of grants that Ohio’s 61 public transit agencies have to compete for.

Under the version of HB 62 before lawmakers, transit would receive $70 million a year.

The bill would create Ohio’s Road to the Future Committee, which would further study the state’s infrastructure needs. It would report its findings to the Ohio General Assembly in 2021, before the next transportation budget is passed.

Under the bill, transit authorities could levy a tax specifically for infrastructure projects.

Some transit advocates had wanted the state to clarify that the Ohio constitutional provision on motor fuel tax spending could include public transit, in addition to roads and bridges.

However, that will not happen under the HB 62 as currently proposed. It restates that the Constitution requires all revenue from the motor fuel tax be used on roads and bridges.

Only one license plate required

Vehicles would only have to display one license plate, displayed in the back, said Oelslager, the House Finance chair.

“It’ll save the state $2 1/2 million," he said.

Oelslager said he expects push-back from law enforcement on vehicles just having one plate.

Other aspects of the bill, in its most recent form:

Municipalities and townships could levy an additional $5 motor vehicle registration fee.

Truck owners wouldn’t have to pay tax on the diesel that runs the refrigeration system. It was unclear Tuesday night how much of a tax break this would amount to a year.

Truckers who own and operate their own vehicles and provide services for a motor carrier would be exempted from the state’s minimum wage and overtime laws, worker’s compensation and unemployment compensation in specific instances -- including if they are paid based on factors related to work performed and not based on hours or time expended.

State law would be clarified to allow earphones and ear plugs to be used on motorcycles.

ODOT would be prohibited from closing rest stops.

ODOT would be prohibited from implementing variable speed limits wherever it saw fit, which was proposed in DeWine’s budget recommendations . The latest version of the bill requires the ODOT director to establish variable speed limit rules and appear before a legislative committee that reviews agency rules.

The bill creates a new fund, the Catastrophic Snowfall Fund, of $250,000, which could be used in the event that 18 or more inches falls during a storm to clear roads. The money could be used by ODOT or be made available to Ohio’s communities, Oelslager said.

Requires $5 million to be transferred, during each two-year budget cycle, from the Oil and Gas Fund to the local governments in counties where at least one well is producing oil and gas in the Utica or Marcellus shale formation for infrastructure funding.

Prohibits skateboards from being attached to the back of a vehicle.

State to regulate scooters

The bill specifies that motorized scooters -- such as those run by Bird and Lime -- will be regulated at the state level.

Scooters cannot go over 15 mph, the bill states.

Among the proposed low-speed electric scooter law: