Senate president says 'No' to gas tax hike

“Whether that’s the gas tax or something else, we’re going to have to face those issues, I think sooner rather than later,” Patrick said this week, when asked if he would keep pushing for the hike in the gas tax.

He made the comments after signing a $27 billion budget that includes more than $1 billion in new taxes on Massachusetts residents and visitors, most of it raised by increasing the state’s 5 percent sales tax to 6.25 percent.

The Legislature has been cool to the idea of raising the gas tax and hasn’t budged after Patrick’s comment. Their approach to meeting transportation funding needs has been to dedicate a portion of the sales tax increase – an estimated $275 million annually – to help offset toll increases, improve regional transit, and alleviate some of the financial strain on the MBTA. The governor’s proposed 19-cents-per-gallon increase in the gas tax would have brought in about $500 million.

Representative Charles A. Murphy, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said Tuesday that the Legislature would likely resist any increase in the gas tax but conceded that a new source of revenue may be needed in the future.

"A gas tax is not going to pass in the near future, in the House or the Senate,” he said. “We've been very clear on that front."

Patrick aides maintain the governor won't push a gas tax increase in the foreseeable future.

“The governor is not pushing for a gas tax or any other broad-based tax increase, and won’t sign one as long as the recession continues,” said Patrick administration spokesman Kyle Sullivan. “People are struggling right now. Another broad-based tax, in the governor’s opinion, is too much to ask of people right now.”

Still, he left open-ended the question of how the governor thinks the state should pay for future transportation needs, saying an estimated $275 million from the sales tax hike that will go to transportation is not enough.

“He has been candid with people from the outset that the Legislature’s sales tax increase is not a permanent fix for transportation,” Sullivan said. “It will help in the short run, but the Commonwealth has a long-term challenge that remains unsolved.”

Here is the complete exchange from Monday’s press conference:

Question: Will you keep making the case for the gas tax?

Patrick’s response: “Well, I think we still have got to turn to the question of a long-term financing solution for our transportation network. We haven’t done that yet, we haven’t finished that work yet. And whether that’s the gas tax or something else, we’re going to have to face those issues, I think, sooner rather than later.”

Patrick was later asked if he thought he would be signing more tax increases over the next year, and he shied away from any tax increase -- except for something that would go to transportation.

“I don’t want to speculate, but I can tell you that’s not where I want to be,” he said. “Leaving aside the open and unresolved question about the financing of transportation, I’d like not to have us come back to further revenue issues. But we’re going to have to stay flexible, because at the same time the public is clamoring for certain basic services, education and health care being chief among them.”

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.