Sunday, May 06, 2007

What to make of this?

More efficient vehicles are putting a dent in state gas tax revenues. It's always a story when government lose revenue as if it were a tragedy.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters says that the federal highway trust fund will lack sufficient funding from taxes beginning in 2009. She has been pressing states to look for alternatives to gasoline taxes.

"The bottom line is that we are spending more than we take in, and we have nearly run through the balances that had built up in the fund," Ms. Peters told Congress in February. "The highway funding problem is not going to go away, nor can we put it off until the last minute."

The highway-fund shortage could be exacerbated if Congress raises fuel-economy standards to curb pollution and reduce reliance on foreign oil. Cars with higher fuel economy can travel longer without refueling.

Cars already are more fuel-efficient than they used to be. Two decades ago, passenger cars got an average of about 14 miles per gallon, according to the Department of Transportation. Now that number is 17 mpg -- in part because people are trading in older cars for new ones with greater fuel-efficiency. The number would be higher had the fuel economy of vans, pickup trucks and SUVs improved, but it has stayed about the same at just over 16 mpg.

Some states are imposing more tolls on highways to raise money. In 2005, states' income from tolls was $5.9 billion, up from $4.1 billion in 1998. In the past two years, 10 more states have begun the process of putting more tolls on new or existing roads.
Now that's answer more tolls!

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