Gas tax alternative drive takes wrong turn: Our view

The Editorial Board | USA TODAY

When it comes to building and repairing roads, states are going nowhere fast. Starved of revenue, they have been underfunding construction and maintenance by as much as $185 billion per year, according to the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission.

And things are getting even worse. Gasoline tax receipts, insufficient to begin with, are tapering off as the result of more fuel-efficient cars and the illogical way most states assess their taxes — as a flat rate in cents per gallon that does not rise with inflation or the price of gasoline.

For these reasons, a number of states are looking at alternatives to the gas tax. Though this is only natural, the states appear motivated less by a desire to address long-term transportation needs than to get rid of a tax that they see as unpopular and unreliable. Some of the replacements they are coming up with range from punitive to ridiculously complicated to Big Brotherish.

Virginia, for instance, has enacted a new law that replaces the state's 7.5 cent gasoline tax with a variety of other taxes and fees. These include a wholesale fuel tax of 3.5%, a hike in the state sales tax, a new hotel tax and — we are not making this up — a $64 per year surcharge on hybrid vehicles.

The sales and hotel taxes force many people who don't drive on Virginia roads to subsidize those who do. And the hybrid fee punishes people who act in the nation's interest by purchasing more fuel-efficient vehicles.

On the other side of the country, and perhaps the other end of the political spectrum, is Oregon. It is testing a plan to replace its gas tax with a mileage fee, one with five options for reporting miles driven. Two options would involve transponders in cars that transmit GPS data to the mileage fee agency. Two would transmit mileage but not locational data. A fifth would have drivers getting their odometers checked periodically, presumably at inspection time.

In other words, the state has engineered a complex bureaucratic system that accomplishes little that a gasoline tax doesn't.

Gas taxes are not perfect. Unlike transponders, they don't allow for peak-hour pricing to reduce congestion. And, as many states have figured out, they raise less money when people buy more efficient cars.

But they have the great virtue of being uncomplicated and fair. The people who pay the most gas tax are those who drive the most and use the most gas. Makes sense to us.

As of the beginning this year, state gas taxes ranged from a high of 50.6 cents a gallon in New York to a low of 8 cents in Alaska. Most states have plenty of room to bump up their taxes without resorting to more intrusive alternatives.

Ultimately, the sheer math of a growing population, and the impossibility of building or expanding roads in major urban areas, might force a new system. But until the cultural and political shift necessary for that kind of a system takes place, it is best to keep things simple.

And the simplest, fairest and least invasive way to respond to lower gas tax revenue is with higher gas taxes.

USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view -- a unique USA TODAY feature.