“We didn’t ask to pay for the relief packages. “Anytime we want money, we get money,” said Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America, an advocacy organization for multimodal transportation. Democrats and Republicans alike have suggested replacing the gas tax with a fee based on vehicle miles traveled, but detractors argue that such a system is not yet ready for nationwide implementation. Lawmakers say they prefer the idea of having a user fee pay for highways, but they’re loath to ask people for the money. The problem is there’s no clear, easy replacement. And with automakers such as General Motors saying they’ll phase out gas-powered combustion engines altogether within the next 20 years, it faces looming irrelevance. It hasn’t been increased since 1993, so it has not kept up with inflation. The federal gas tax, which through the Highway Trust Fund has paid for highways since 1956 and transit since 1982, has been a key revenue stream for a portion of the nation’s infrastructure but has lost its buying power as cars have become more fuel-efficient. As lawmakers begin work on a massive infrastructure bill that they hope to pass by this summer, a key question lingers: What’s to become of the gas tax?
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