Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle, strongly urged the House to reject the proposed gas tax increase. "This debate has lost some perspective," he said. "We keep talking about our roads going into disrepair. ... This legislature is being accused of not taking care of our roads, and that is entirely inaccurate." Labrador said Idaho is spending hundreds of millions on roads, between the ITD budget, GARVEE bonds and federal stimulus money. He said some of those millions should be going into road maintenance. "It's not the time to raise our people's taxes just because we do not have the will to find the money ... that's not being used for maintenance and preservation of our roads," he said. "Maybe we need to look at the way we're spending money on new roads better."

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