Americans cut back the size of car they drive and the amount they drive over the past year in response to higher gas prices. This has deprived state and federal government of highway money, which comes from taxes on motor fuels. The fuel efficiency question could be handled with a vehicles mile tax, but that still leaves the question of how to deal with less demand for roads.
What makes this tricky for revenue fans is that highway money goes to subsidize mass transit, bike trails, and other non-highway methods of getting around. None of these other methods can pay for themselves. In North Carolina, the Highway Trust Fund also pays part of the general spending tab of legislators.
Taxes on drivers should be conceptually similar to user fees. The easiest way to guarantee that is by selling or leasing the road to a private company that charges tolls. Given that road revenues of any kind are shrinking, let’s at least make sure the money gets spent on roads where they need to be, not on political connections.
