"But I'm realistic enough to know that we're going to fix the roads one way or another," he said. "And it makes no sense to borrow the money and pay interest on it over time and not actually fix as many roads as are necessary."

Four major state highway projects have racked up more than $700 million in overruns in part because of delays, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

"It makes no sense for us to hold the lid on spending and then have costs go up over time and then have to raise revenues later," Vos said. "The one thing we do know is that we're not seeing a dramatic increase in gasoline usage. As more cars become more and more fuel efficient, we see that even if you have a hybrid vehicle where you basically pay nothing toward the maintenance of the roads, you're still using the exact same amount of wear and tear.