Iowa House Transportation Chairman Josh Brynes of Osage is making a last ditch effort to try and get an infrastructure funding bill passed as the session winds down. An attempt to move a fuel tax measure in the State Senate failed because leadership blocked it. Brynes is now trying to get a fuel tax measure through an Omnibus bill in the House that would cut the state’s fuel tax but add a 5 percent excise tax on wholesale gasoline.

Brynes says he’s disappointed election politics appears to be trumping attempts to fund the state’s road and bridge repair and upkeep.

Brynes says if legislators wait a year to fund infrastructure repair it’ll just cost the taxpayers more as input and labor costs will keep going up creating an even bigger and more expensive problem.