The Dispatch wrote Road budgets falling behind need for repair
Thursday, April 17, 2008
BY DONNA BORAK
Across the country, states are more desperate than ever to tap every possible source of funding — tolls on leased roads, sharp hikes in motor-fuel taxes and working with the private sector — to finance the building and repairing of roads and bridges.
The federal motor tax has held steady at 18.4 cents since 1993 and would be 27 cents a gallon if it had kept pace with consumer inflation. A federal commission is recommending that the federal gas tax be raised by as much as 40 cents per gallon over five years, but observers don’t think that will win congressional approval anytime soon.
The notion of an increased gas tax runs counter to an election-year proposal by Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain. He wants to give consumers a “gas-tax holiday” this summer to stimulate the economy.
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