Motorists' habits spur call for tax increases
Photo 
In this Nov. 21, 2007 file photo, Shell Oil Company's Deer Park refinery and petrochemical facility is shown in the background as vehicles travel along Highway 225 in Deer Park, Texas. A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by a federal commissiion to finance highway construction and repair until a government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.
WASHINGTON — Motorists are driving less and buying less gasoline, which means fuel taxes aren't raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.
That has the federal commission that oversees financing for transportation talking about increasing the federal fuel tax.
A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by the commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.
The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel created by Congress, is the second group in a year to call for increasing the current 18.4 cents a gallon federal tax on gasoline and the 24.4 cents a gallon tax on diesel. State fuel taxes vary from state to state.
In a report expected in late January, members of the infrastructure financing commission say they will urge Congress to raise the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon and the diesel tax by 12 cents to 15 cents a gallon. At the same time, the commission will recommend tying the fuel tax rates to inflation.
The commission will also recommend that states raise their fuel taxes and make greater use of toll roads and fees for rush-hour driving.
Although the cost of gasoline has dropped dramatically in recent months, such tax increases could be politically treacherous for Democratic leaders in Congress. A gas tax hike was one of the reasons they lost control of the House and Senate in the 1994 elections. President-elect Barack Obama has expressed concern about raising fuel taxes in the current economic climate.
But commission members said the government must find more road and bridge building money somewhere.
"I'm not excited about a gas tax increase, but the reality is our current gas tax doesn't pay for upkeep of the system we have now," said Adrian Moore, vice president of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank in Los Angeles, and a member of the highway revenue commission. "We can either let the roads go to hell or we can pay more."
The dilemma for Congress is that highway and transit programs are dependent for revenue on fuel taxes that are not sustainable. Many Americans are driving less and switching to more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, and a shift to new fuels and technologies like plug-in hybrid electric cars will further erode gasoline sales.
According to a draft of the financing commission's recommendations, the nation needs to move to a new system that taxes motorists according to how much they use roads.
"Most if not all of the commissioners have a strong belief and commitment that we need a fundamental transformation of the current system," said commission chairman Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology policy think tank in Washington.
A study by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies estimated that the annual gap between revenues and the investment needed to improve highway and transit systems was about $105 billion in 2007, and will increase to $134 billion in 2017 under current trends.
Projected shortfalls in revenue led the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, in a report issued in January 2008, to call for an increase of as much as 40 cents a gallon in the gas tax, phased in over five years.
Charles Whittington, chairman of the American Trucking Associations, which supports a fuel tax increase as long as the money goes to highway projects, said Congress may decide to disguise a fuel tax hike as a surcharge to combat climate change.
Transportation is responsible for about a third of all U.S. carbon emissions created by burning fossil fuels. Traffic congestion wastes an estimated 2.9 billion gallons of fuel a year. Less congestion would reduce greenhouse gases and dependence on foreign oil.
"Instead of calling it a gas tax, call it a carbon tax," Whittington said.
Bottlenecks around the nation cost the trucking industry about 243 million lost truck hours and about $7.8 billion per year, according to the commission.
Jan 4, 2009 at 3:14 p.m.
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What about those darn gas prices raising 24 cents a gallon in ONE day?? The price of oil only went up $4.00 a barrel, not $40.00 a barrel. The National average is only $1.62 a gallon and yet Janesville continues to lead the nation in the highest prices around. I guess when the demand went down, raise the price to make up the difference. The old supply and demand. Even little ole Brodhead was only $1.71 a gallon today. Why the spike?????? No rhyme or reason for this much of a spike....
Jan 3, 2009 at 7:19 p.m.
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Open road tolling will generate more income. It will also ensure that the state receives money from out of state people who come to Wisconsin. Take a look arund the northwoods, Lake Geneva, the Dells, how many Illinois plates do you see? I can also see green when they plug our tolls, come on legislature.
Jan 3, 2009 at 6:57 p.m.
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"so open road tollways in effect have not solved anything."
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I think a big part of it is a mis-management issue.
Jan 3, 2009 at 2:32 p.m.
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This proves that "use" tax is a bad idea. Like cigarette taxes what happens when the behavior changes and people stop purchasing...the government will complain the money will have to come from something else. The government for decades has tried to hide the true cost people pay in taxes via sales, uses, fees, payroll. As a nation the citizenry would be stunned if they realized how much money was paid out of every dollar earned...and the government wasted.
Jan 3, 2009 at 2:27 p.m.
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JohnDoe...in addition to open road tollway Illinois still has one of the highest gas taxes per gallon in the nation...so open road tollways in effect have not solved anything.
Jan 3, 2009 at 12:49 p.m.
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Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn. If you have not heard of this, search "NAFTA Highway" and look at the plans and maps. Everyone should know that this is coming. They will use our tax money to build it and american people and the teamsters won't be allowed on it. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?i...
Jan 3, 2009 at 12:26 p.m.
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One embassy wasn't enough for Bush. He wanted one in Beijing China too. It is second in size only to the Bagdad embassy. It opened during the 2008 olympics when Bush did the ribbon cutting. At least we didn't have to go to war so we could build it. We just had to give them our manufacturing jobs. http://www.china.org.cn/international/ne...
Jan 3, 2009 at 12:12 p.m.
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Bush has raided all the programs he could to pay for his little pet projects. The problem is his projects were not so little. The only reason he went into Iraq was to build the "Bush Kingdom". It is also known as the Bagdad Embassy. It is the largest known embassy EVER! It is 104 acres in size, 10 times larger than other embassys. He didn't even use american contractors or workers to build it. We can't leave Iraq now because we have to protect this huge complex with 1200 men. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/...
Jan 3, 2009 at 9:17 a.m.
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wwr1961- Nice try with the use of "abomination". Let's try and keep the big words for the smart people. But it is nice to know that you have this whole thing figured out. I'm sure that you're the first one to think of taxing imports. Freakin' genius.
Jan 3, 2009 at 12:07 a.m.
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We as taxpayers are damned if we do and damned if we don't. We are told to drive less to slow down the demand for foreign oil. W do then they want to tax us more. Maybe they should look around and try to actually think like a normal person for once. Household budgets are tight people have to cut back on their budgets why the heck can't the government do the same? It's really pretty funny how they say it will only be temporary. Yeah haven't we heard that before? Just like social security payments weren't supposed to get taxed either. These clowns get annual raises whether they do there jobs or not. How many of you get raises for not doing your jobs? Maybe they could prioritize the construction. We taxpayers get bailing out corporations and banks for not running their corporations right then they want to turn around and raise our taxes on everything.
Jan 2, 2009 at 11:37 p.m.
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There is one thing our (F)riendly (I)llinois (B)uds did get right...and that is "open road tolling". Let those who play --- pay.
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When will Doyle and the boneheads in the state legislature wake up?
Jan 2, 2009 at 11:15 p.m.
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They forgot to tell us about this when they said that we needed to work to end our dependence on foreign oil. Very conveniently, I might add...
Jan 2, 2009 at 7:36 p.m.
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Unbelievable!! Our fine government in action. I encourage every taxpaying U.S. citizen to contact your representatives and demand that they vote no to this tax increase. Throw these bums out of office if they vote yes.
Jan 2, 2009 at 5:24 p.m.
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This is an absolute abomination. We drive less and get rewarded with more taxes. This is rediculous. We all saved more in our 401k and it got raided!! We should demand to know where all of our money is going!! And just where will all of this go?Why not raise the taxes / tarriffs of foreign products coming into our country? Think about it? For every item imported we could get and extra 10 cents. That has got to raise billions and billions of dollars, maybe trillions!!!
Jan 2, 2009 at 1:39 p.m.
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"American Trucking Association" is another one that falls into the dirty politician category.
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Nothing "American" about them.
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Jan 2, 2009 at 1:30 p.m.
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How about politicians like Doyle stop burglarizing the highway fund to pay off their cronies??
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There has never been and unlikely that there will ever be a lack of highway funds, its politicians stealing it that creates the problem and then they want to raise taxes to cover up their misdeeds.
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