February 27, 2009
Panel Suggests Higher Gas Tax
By KATE GALBRAITH
NYT

A commission established by Congress to study options for financing the nation’s roads and bridges on Thursday recommended raising the federal gas tax by 10 cents a gallon.

In a report, the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission cited a “crisis” of neglect for infrastructure, and also called for an eventual switch to a tax based on miles driven, rather than gasoline consumed.

Raising the federal gas tax, now 18.4 cents a gallon, is so politically tricky that the idea has gone nowhere in 16 years. The tax is the main source of federal dollars for fixing roads and bridges. The commission said that a 10-cent increase would cost the average household $9 a month extra.

The report also called for raising the federal diesel tax, now 24.4 cents a gallon, by 15 cents.

Raising the gas tax is seen as a short-term measure, because as Americans begin driving more fuel-efficient cars, gas tax revenue will fall. Initiating a mileage tax, which the commission recommended doing in a “comprehensive” way by 2020, would also be politically difficult. In the United States, only Oregon has experimented with such a system.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has floated the idea of a mileage tax, but last week the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said that the new type of tax “is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration.”