Bump Up the Gas Tax

Help the region's rough roads.

FOUR HUNDRED fifty-eight dollars: That's how much Washington area commuters have to set aside each year to repair damage to their vehicles inflicted by the region's deteriorating roads. So reports "Rough Roads Ahead: Fix Them Now or Pay for It Later," which finds that only 27 percent of the region's roads in 2007 were rated as being in good condition. That news won't surprise Washington area commuters, who are used to swerving around potholes. But it should serve as a reminder to elected officials who launch into anti-tax diatribes at the mere mention of raising revenue to pay for roads: Commuters are already paying a price for the nation's crumbling roads, and it's going to only get worse.

The study, issued by the Road Information Program and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, transportation research and advocacy groups, found that a mixture of under-investment, increased freight traffic and near-constant rush hour in urban areas is taxing the nation's highways. One-third of the country's roads are in poor or mediocre condition, a problem that's particularly acute in cities. The longer lawmakers dawdle in fixing roads, the higher the cost to taxpayers: As the report points out, every dollar spent to maintain a road today obviates the need to spend from $6 to $14 to replace dilapidated highways.

The stimulus package approved in February will inject needed dollars into state transportation funds, but it's hardly a panacea. The package doles out $27 billion for highways nationwide, a fraction of the $166 billion the federal government should be investing. Maryland received $431 million for highways, Virginia close to $700 million. That sounds like a lot, but each state recently cut roughly $2.2 billion from its six-year transportation funding plan because of the economic downturn. The percentage of roads rated as poor in the Washington area rose from 25 percent in 2004 to 31 percent to 2007; stimulus spending will barely slow the deterioration.

The solution in the near term, as this page has argued, is to raise the gasoline tax. The 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gas tax hasn't risen since 1993, losing one-third of its purchasing power in that time. In Virginia, lawmakers haven't increased the state's 17.5-cents-a-gallon tax since 1986. Despite dire transportation needs, lawmakers from both parties opposed increasing the fee last year.

Hardly anyone welcomes higher gas prices. But Bob Chase, head of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, estimates that a 10-cent increase in the gas tax would cost Virginians an average of $60 a year. Sure beats paying $458.