Conservative tax activist Don McIntyre filed paperwork earlier this month to initiate a referendum on the $300 million transportation plan that passed during the 2009 legislative session.

They have approximately six weeks to collect 55,000 valid signatures in order to put the measure on the ballot in the fall of 2009.

The state gasoline tax, now 24 cents a gallon, has not been raised since 1993 despite repeated attempts by legislators to do so. Under the new law passed by the Legislature, House Bill 2001, gas taxes will rise by six cents a gallon once there are two quarters of employment growth or by Jan. 1, 2011 at the latest.

Read Jeff Mapes' account here