Gas Price Jumps Could Hurt Tinley Park Road Repairs

With gas prices expected to reach $5 a gallon over the summer, a drive through Tinley Park could be not only an expensive prospect, but a bumpy one.

On Tuesday night, the village board discussed how – or whether – to find an extra $644,000 to repair all 14 miles of road up on the rotation to get repaved this year.

"It's probably our biggest challenge for the upcoming year," Trustee Dave Seaman said.

The estimated shortfall in the road repair fund has varied over the past few months. In February, . In March, .

Now it looks like the village would need an extra $644,000 to do all the roads it would usually do this summer.

To be clear, the village does have enough money to cover it. But it would have to dip into the funds balances to do so, something it can afford to do this year but not next year or the year after that, said Treasurer Brad Bettenhausen.

Think of it like dipping into your savings account to pay your bills. You can do it once, but once that money's gone, it's gone.

The trouble is gas.

Like most towns in Illinois, Tinley pays for its road repairs from the Motor Fuel Tax, a tax on every gallon of gas pumped. Unlike other towns, Tinley also puts a portion of the money from vehicle stickers toward the roads, but that's a much smaller chunk – $293,000 from the stickers compared to $1.5 million from the Motor Fuel Tax.

And the Motor Fuel Tax is increasingly in trouble as gas gets pricier and people get greener.

For every gallon of gas pumped in Illinois, the state collects 9.8 cents. That's 9.8 cents, not 9.8 percent. So whether gas is $1 or $20 a gallon, the state still collects just under a dime per gallon.

And that's just what the state collects – only a portion of that comes back to Tinley Park.

"As gas prices go up, it's still that 9.8 cents," Bettenhausen said. "The state Legislature has talked about increasing it, but they haven't done so."

What does happen as gas prices rise is people stop buying gas. Public transportation, bikes and better-mileage cars seem like better options when gas prices spike.

"We're seeing almost immediate decrease in use of gas even locally," Village Clerk Pat Rea said.

This puts hybrid and electric cars in a difficult position. Because they're cars, they're still wearing down the road surface as much as any gas-guzzling Hummer. But because they're green, their owners aren't buying the gas that pays for those road repairs.

Oregon lawmakers are considering a per-mile tax on electric vehicles, a move some environmentalists fear could deter people from buying more ecologically friendly cars.

In the shorter term, Tinley Park has either a $644,000 shortfall to cover or some decisions to make about what roads to leave out of this year's repairs.

If they do dip into balances to cover the roadwork, they can only do it once.

"We can't do that again next year," Trustee Greg Hannon said.