Though a number of questions and comments were raised on a variety of topics during Monday night’s town hall event hosted by Rep. Prince Chestnut, D-Selma, several revolved around issues of infrastructure and the proposed increase in gas taxes, both at the state and local level.

The second question of the evening, following one regarding the completion of projects aimed at improving I-85, tasked Chestnut with sharing his opinion on the proposed increase to the state gas tax, which could be as much as 12-cents.

“In principle, I’m for it,” Chestnut said. “But I don’t blindly commit to anything I have not yet read.”

Chestnut said he recognizes the need for a state gas tax increase to provide funding for much needed infrastructure repairs across the state, but noted that “the devil is in the details” and said he would not support a measure that does not benefit rural areas.

According to Chestnut, the state has not increased its gas tax since 1992, while more than 30 states, including those throughout the Southeast, have increased gas taxes or found other funding streams to repair aging infrastructure.

Chestnut claimed that roughly 75 percent of gas purchases are made in metropolitan areas of the state, such as Montgomery and Birmingham, and those areas might demand a higher share of any revenues generated from an increased gas tax.

“We just don’t quite have the numbers the metropolitan areas have,” Chestnut said. “Whatever comes forward, it has to make sense for this area.”

Elsewhere in the meeting, Chestnut stated that representatives in northern parts of the state were likely to vote against the measure, while those in more urban and southern parts of the state were likely to vote in favor.

Lobbyists, he said, are overwhelmingly in favor of the measure.

Later in the meeting, Selma City Councilwoman Angela Benjamin asked Chestnut to weigh in on the proposed increase to the local gas tax, which is slated to come before the council for a vote next week.

Benjamin asked if Chestnut believed the local increase would be a “tax on top of a tax on top pf a tax.”

For his part, Chestnut believes the outcome will be that people outside of Selma’s city limits will have access to cheaper gas and many people in the city will simply drive the extra mile to save money at the pump.

“I don’t know if the desired result will come back,” Chestnut said. “Using logic, it’s probably going to be difficult for it to work.”

The next resident who spoke only reinforced this assertion, stating that he would seek out the lowest gas prices available.

Beyond the proposed tax increases, Chestnut briefly described legislation he plans to propose in the upcoming legislative season to recruit more local and county law enforcement agents and increase accountability at the municipal and county level.

“Everything that we’ve talked about plays a role in job creation,” Chestnut said. “Let’s just pray for our community and, when we’re done praying, let’s move our feet.”