Everyone wants better highways, safe bridges and more transit options - but nobody wants to pay for them. Last week, U.S. Secretary Ray LaHood acknowledged to a Senate committee that the federal Highway Trust Fund is not financially viable, but he said the Obama administration will not consider raising the federal gas tax to correct the problem.
That's not a big surprise given the radioactive politics of the gas tax these days, but it's still disappointing - and confounding. As a candidate for office, Mr. Obama was at least serious about the trust fund's problems (he declined to endorse an ill-conceived gas tax holiday, as his opponents did), and he seems serious about climate change and conservation.
Earlier this year, a congressionally created committee endorsed a 10-cent-a-gallon increase in what is now an 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal tax on gasoline. But neither Congress nor the administration seems particularly interested in pursuing such a policy.
That the nation has unfunded and urgent transportation needs is undeniable. The economic stimulus package was helpful but only a short-term fix.
Mr. LaHood and others say it's wrong to raise taxes in the middle of a recession. But some incremental increase in gas prices of a few cents per gallon has become a common enough occurrence anyway in a fluctuating global petroleum market. A family might end up paying $3 more monthly if the tax were raised a nickel. That's hardly the calamity of last year's $4-a-gallon gasoline.
What happens if Washington waits until the recession is over? Demand will increase, higher gasoline prices will return and you can bet the politicians will be even more scared to address the trust fund's insolvency.
It's simply nonsensical to believe that the nation's transportation needs can be met by keeping the gas tax at the same level as it was in 1993 while construction costs have skyrocketed over those same 16 years. The trust fund would be bankrupt today if Congress hadn't interceded and bailed it out with an emergency $8 billion payment last year.
Does anyone want to pay more to fill up the family car? No. But better to see the same money go to improving the nation's infrastructure and creating jobs now than to big corporations and hostile foreign governments tomorrow.
Naysayers are right about one thing. America's highway and transit needs can't be met by fuel taxes alone - not if the country is going to get serious about climate change and greatly reduce consumption of fossil fuels. But that's a long-term problem. Right now, the federal gasoline tax needs to be raised just to keep the nation's economic future on track - and asphalt.
