This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Here's one reason to cheer in the coming new year: no automatic increase in Utah's gasoline tax.

Low gasoline prices during the past 12 months are preventing what otherwise would have been an automatic uptick in the state tax, effective New Year's Day.

Last year, lawmakers approved a 4.9-cent per gallon hike that took effect Jan. 1, 2016 — from 24.5 cents to 29.4 cents — the first increase since 1997.

The legislation also created a system that could automatically boost that tax every year to keep up with inflation — but only if gasoline prices rise.

That new system is a bit complicated. But the law changed the gasoline tax so that it is now technically 12 percent of the wholesale price of fuel, making it more of a sales tax than the former flat cents-per-gallon tax.

The new law says the tax will be adjusted once a year — effective Jan. 1 — by multiplying 12 percent times the wholesale gasoline price for the previous three years. It prevents the tax from dropping below the current 29.4 cents per gallon and keeps it from rising above 40 cents per gallon in the future.

The Utah Tax Commission issued a bulletin saying it performed the required calculations, and gasoline and diesel tax rates "will not change for 2017."

The commission has estimated that the initial 4.9-cent-a-gallon increase generates about $76 million a year, with 70 percent going to the state for its highways and 30 percent to cities and counties for local roads.

The Utah Department of Transportation said its share of about $55 million a year has been targeted for bridges and some long-neglected rural highways.

Because of no state gas tax increases for nearly 20 years, dwindling buying power from inflation and more fuel-efficient vehicles, the state realized about 10 years ago that this revenue source was not bringing in enough money to maintain all its highways.

So UDOT intentionally stopped maintaining low-volume state highways in rural areas that had fewer than 1,000 cars or 100 trucks per day. The money saved went to maintain freeways and high-volume highways.

UDOT decided to take about $40 million a year of the new gas tax money to fix and better maintain those neglected rural roads.

Another $15 million or so will go annually to maintain and replace bridges around the state, another area UDOT had said it was falling behind on.