Sen. John McCain’s proposal to suspend federal fuel taxes from Memorial Day through Labor Day prompted a swift and negative response Tuesday by West Virginia Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox.

Already struggling to find enough cash for road improvements, Mattox said the Arizona senator and Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting would only make matters worse in West Virginia if less funds were available.

“I was driving down the road when I heard that and about had a heart attack,” Mattox laughed, when reached at his Charleston office.

“About 40 percent of our budget comes from the Federal Highway Trust Fund. I’m sure it would take a hit if you quit funding it for three or four months in the peak driving season. I’m sure it would result in a cutback in services we’re able to provide.”

As motorists face spiraling costs at the pump, McCain suggested a temporary suspension of the 18.4 cent gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax between the two holidays.

But Mattox cautioned this disruption in the flow of taxes paid on fuel would “create a lot of issues for us.”

“It wouldn’t bring us to a standstill, but we would have to push projects back because of the lack of money to get them constructed as we’ve got them scheduled currently,” the official said.

Overall, this year’s state budget is around $1.1 billion, and some $400,000 of that comes in federal tax dollars, Mattox pointed out.

Under the McCain proposal, this would mean a 25 percent loss in West Virginia’s share of the federal dollars, he said.

“You’d probably get about 75 percent of what you thought you would get,” he said.

“It’s a loss of about $100 million, potentially. My gosh, you’d have to cut back across the board — paving, bridge replacements, little widening jobs. Whatever we have in our six-year program as to where we’re going to send that money next year, we’d have to take quite a bit out of it because of lack of funds and postpone it until the following year.”

Much of the routine maintenance work is financed with the state road fund, so in this arena, Mattox feels the state would be “in pretty good shape.”

Mattox pointed out that some 10,300 miles within the state’s system qualify for federal aid, so the McCain idea would translate into fewer dollars on federal highway miles.

One source indicated the McCain proposal would deny the federal highway fund of some $10 billion.

Moreover, putting the federal tax on gas and diesel into limbo for three months won’t do much for motorists struggling to pay for fuel, Mattox said. For instance, at Tuesday’s going prices in the Beckley area, it would mean a gallon of gas would merely drop to $3.31.

“They’d raise it back overnight, probably,” Mattox said of the retailers. “It gives them more operational room. I don’t think the issue is even the federal or state tax. On a percentage basis, that tax is a lot less today than it was 10 years ago when the price of gas was about $1.25 a gallon.”

West Virginia’s overall gas tax is 32 cents per gallon. Broken down, that shakes out to 20.5 cents in the at rate, and 11.5 cents for the variable portion calculated on the retail price of gas between July and October each year.

“We don’t have enough funds to do what we need to do the way it is, much less if you start cutting the tax,” Mattox added.

— E-mail:

mannix@register-herald.com