Pumping the brakes: Legislature advances bill overturning local-option gas ax

=HELENA — In June of last year, Missoula County voters narrowly agreed on a 2 cent per gallon gas tax to help pay for  infrastructure projects. Now, lawmakers are advancing a bill that would overturn that decision and remove the option for other local governments to tax gas sales with voter approval.

Rep. Marilyn Marler, D-Missoula, said her district was an ideal testing ground for “wacky” ideas like the local-option gas tax, which lawmakers passed in 1979.

“Missoula County — being such that we are, unafraid to try wacky things — we did it,” Marler said