By Peter Luke

LANSING -- A gas tax is a job creator, while the service tax is a job killer. So say the interest groups out to hike the one and scrap the other. Despite the pressure, lawmakers are tax averse at the moment.

On Wednesday, a coalition of road builders, union leaders, local governments and general business groups renewed their push for a $1 billion annual increase in fuel tax and vehicle registration fees to replenish shrinking road repair budgets.

A bill package quickly shelved after introduction in April would raise the state's 19-cent gas tax to 28 cents per gallon by 2009 and boost vehicle registration fees by 50 percent. The state would get 40 percent of the new money. Counties and cities would share the rest. The proposal has languished because neither Gov. Jennifer Granholm nor lawmakers have made road revenue an element in a year-long struggle to balance the state budget.

"At the state and local level, there's a minimum of a $2.7 billion funding gap between that which is needed and that which is available," said Mike Nystrom of the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association. "We've stuck to our guns on this proposal because that's the minimum of what the state needs to come up with."