Darn those fuel efficient cars

Darn them all to heck. Here's a story, from the Wall Street Journal, in the wake of the news that Toyota is outselling GM worldwide for the first time ever:

Cars and trucks are getting more fuel-efficient, and that's good news for drivers. But it's a headache for state highway officials, who depend on gasoline taxes to build and maintain roads.

The Federal Highway Administration estimates that by 2009 the tax receipts that make up most of the federal highway trust fund will be $21 billion shy of what's needed just to maintain existing roads, much less build new roads or add capacity. Trying to compensate for highway-budget shortfalls, a handful of states are exploring other, potentially more lucrative ways to raise highway money.

"In 10 years, we are going to be in an intolerable financial position, and we need to start fixing it now before the problem starts," says James Whitty, manager of an alternative funding project in the Oregon transportation department.

One obvious fix to this--for those states so impacted--would be to raise the gas tax. That, if it was indexed to the price of gasoline or to inflation, would do the trick. Another, I think more progressive, move would be to raise the gas tax while simultaneously increasing the income tax burden on the wealthy people of those states by a fixed amount. That extra tax could be tied to a small refund if gas tax revenues proved to be greater than expected. Each of these would have the twin incentives of incentivizing fuel efficient vehicles and discouraging unneccessary driving. 

Instead, the suggestions are mostly regressive and--pardon the expression--all over the map:

In a year-long pilot program overseen by Mr. Whitty, the cars of 260 volunteers were outfitted with Global Positioning Systems and electronic odometers that recorded the number of miles driven. The drivers bought gasoline at specially equipped service stations, where computers on the pumps subtracted the 24-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax and added a 1.2 cent fee for every mile driven....

If the program is fully implemented at some point, Oregon would likely have to keep dual tax methods. Out-of-state drivers, whose cars wouldn't be equipped with the required mileage devices, would continue to pay the gas tax, while Oregon drivers would be switched to the mileage-based fee....

Virginia is planning a different route to raise highway money: It's researching various way to penalize drivers for violating driving rules. The penalty would be in addition to the regular fees and fines. For example, a driver with several points against his license might have to pay an additional $1,000 just to keep driving. This month, the Virginia legislature, after years of debate, is allowing the state's two most populous areas -- one in northern Virginia/Washington and the other in the southeast around Virginia Beach -- to establish specialized taxing districts to pay for roads and underwater tunnels.

Here's the (kind of sort of important) background, in the last two paragraphs of the story:

Most states levy gasoline taxes of 10 to 20 cents a gallon. Voters are reluctant to increase the tax; as a result, some states have the same rate they did two decades ago.

Oregon's gasoline tax, for example, has remained at 24 cents per gallon since 1993, Minnesota's at 20 cents since its inception in 1988 and Virginia's at 17.5 cents since 1986. The federal gasoline tax, which is 18.4 cents per gallon, hasn't changed since 1997.

Not that this could be spun as the cowardice of legislators or anything.