I was happy that Obama stood up against the pressure to join McCain and Clinton in calling for a gas tax holiday this summer. It would have further bankrupt our federal highway trust fund, caused major job losses, increased the number of potholes across our country, and exacerbated our addiction to oil. In fact, people looking closely at our highways believe they need more revenue to stay in good shape. So we may see a dime increase in the gas tax.

The problem is, asphalt is a product made from crude oil. And the vehicles used by road construction companies run on oil. So the recent rise in oil’s price has caused a similar rise in the maintenance and construction of our nation’s roads. These higher costs necessitate higher revenues for the system to be sustainable. While many local projects are identifying new methods to finance road construction such as tolls the key revenue source remains taxes on our gasoline and diesel consumption which is an efficient user fee. At 18.4 and 24.3 cents per gallon today out of $4.10 and $4.80, a dime increase would increase their price less than 3%. If a greater percentage of the revenue went toward supporting public transit projects and bike lanes then the new funds could also help us to transform our nation’s transportation to be more secure from oil price shocks and sustainable for our climate.

For those that worry about any effects from higher taxes, our taxes would still be a drop in the bucket compared to European taxes which can be measured in the dollars per gallon rather than dimes per gallon. And what would you rather have, a failing road infrastructure that damages our vehicles or smooth sailing that costs ~2.5% more? I’d put my vote toward on the tiny tax increase. We’ll see if our elected leaders have the political will to keep US roads safe…