Why Your Gas Taxes Are Going Up, Sooner Rather Than Later

With gas prices still low and Americans driving more than ever, many states have found an answer to the pressing question of how to fix broken roads: Higher taxes on gasoline — and more fees on cars that don’t need it.

In Georgia, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal on Monday signed a $900 million bill that raised the state’s gas tax for the first time in 44 years. Last month, Idaho did the same, hiking its fuel tax by 7 cents to 32 cents a gallon. And in Michigan, lawmakers and Gov. Rick Snyder have backed a ballot proposal that would have generated $1.25 billion a year for roads through higher taxes and vehicle registration fees.

That all of these moves came via tax-hostile Republican administrations demonstrates the political power of roads. As I’ve written before, both federal and local governments have been shortchanging maintenance costs on the nation’s 4 million miles of roads for several years, dating back before the Great Recession. Those three states followed South Dakota, Utah and Iowa in moving this year; by the end of 2015, more than half the country may have seen a gas tax hike in the past two years.

“It was time; we needed to update it,” said Deal about his state’s tax hike. “There will always be those who will find a reason for voting against anything, but I know they’re going to enjoy riding those new roads and crossing those safe bridges just like everyone else will.”

More fuel-efficient vehicles mean that gas-tax receipts will only keep falling, and nothing scares government transportation planners quite like pitches for cars like the next-generation Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, which Chevy says a typical owner will drive 1,000 miles between fill-ups. Most of the money-raising ideas approved by states so far have also tried to wean road repairs from relying solely on gasoline or diesel sales, mostly through fees.

The Georgia law not only ended a $5,000 state tax credit for buying electric vehicles — a deal that had made Atlanta one of the nation’s largest EV markets outside of California — but places an extra $200 a year tax on electric vehicles, in lieu of the money lost from liquid fuel taxes.

All of this foreshadows the debate underway in Congress, where federal officials have been pushing for a re-authorized transportation bill that could cost tens of billions of dollars. So far, no one expects the federal gas tax to rise — and there have even been a couple of proposals to slash it. And not all such plans are popular: the Michigan proposal was soundly defeated by voters there Tuesday, despite a general consensus that the state’s roads are in disrepair. But with some $90 billion needed over the next five years to keep roads repaired nationwide, the question won’t be if the money will arrive, but from where.