Talk of meaningful reform in Washington is abundant but hope is slim, if at all. During recent discussions on infrastructure spending out floated, once again, a way to increase the federal tax on gasoline. It’s a good idea, this time in the form of tying the gas tax to inflation.
The notion came from moderate Republicans and Democrats looking for ways to help fund a $1 trillion plan to build or improve roads, bridges, water and sewer pipes, Internet connections and so forth. Tying higher gas taxes to infrastructure programs is logical, but in today’s Congress it’s a non-starter.
Two years ago, President Trump offered a big plan to overhaul and improve America’s infrastructure, but left specifics to others. It carried a vague $2 trillion price tag, a bit more than Biden’s initial proposal, and included highways, bridges, airports, railroads, locks and dams, tech and telecommunications. There was talk of promise, a lot of posturing, and nothing happened.
Why? Whispers had leaked the notion of a federal gasoline tax to provide partial funding. Rumblings came from the Republican right. The White House scrambled to reassure conservatives that it did not plan to ask for a federal gas tax increase to pay for the president’s idea.
Trump had struck out on this before. In February 2018, he had announced a $1.5 trillion plan for highways, airports, railroads, telecommunication, and more. That plan fizzled when it became apparent that little federal money would be involved. He would provide the plan. The states were to come up with the money.
In recent decades, inflation has severely weakened the purchasing power of the gas tax. The costs of building roads are up, vehicles are more fuel-efficient. A tax tied to inflation would rise with the cost of doing business. It would likely prompt the matter of state tax increases to share the costs.
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The current federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents per gallon; the federal tax on diesel fuel is 24.4 cents. The federal taxes have not been increased since 1993.
The Kansas tax on gasoline is 24.03 cents and 26.03 on diesel – last raised a penny each, in 2004. (Total state-federal tax on gasoline in Kansas is 42.8 cents per gallon, and 50.4 cents for diesel).
Kansas has collected a tax on gasoline since 1925 (2 cents a gallon) and on diesel since 1942 (3 cents). It went up by a penny now and then and in 1984 hit 10 cents a gallon and later that year, 11cents.
In 1990, when the Kansas tax was raised from 11 to 15 cents, the state began a series of further increases. Each year it increased a penny until 1993 (18 cents for gas, 20 cents for diesel). This was to help finance two massive highway improvements projects ($11 billion and $14 billion) in Kansas enacted in the late 1980s and mid-1990s. Federal money also was involved.
Kansas gas and diesel taxes raise roughly $900 million per year – $90 million for every nickel in taxes – for the state highway fund.
Federal fuel taxes raise $62 billion, which goes to the federal highway trust fund and is allocated to states.
Since 1993 the federal tax has stayed still; Kansas fuel taxes increased 33 percent between 1993 and 2004.
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And there is the overriding matter of America’s cheap gas and global concerns of a climate crisis. As of early June, the price of a liter of gasoline in Sweden was roughly $7.24 a gallon. This is converting a price of €1.58 (converted from Swedish kroner) per liter, according to Autotraveler, an agency that watches fuel prices in Europe.
In Europe, petrol prices are posted by the liter. Across the continent the price has ranged from €1.50 to €1.60 ($1.81 to $1.94). There are 3.79 liters in a gallon. In U.S. dollars, gas in Europe costs $6.86 to $7.35 per gallon. Europe worries about the climate. For America, $3 gasoline seems free.
Cheap fuel is hardly incentive to go green in America. In this era of strident political divide, necessity has little to do with the value of a federal program, or plans to shore up a frayed infrastructure. Or have electric vehicles.
In this case, talk of a gas tax increase is so much noise, and we are a long way from harnessing hot air as a motor fuel. If we want better roads, or public transit. or safer bridges, or a speedy Internet, we must elect a Congress with a spine and a brain, one that thinks for the national interest. One that can craft real plans and an equitable way to pay for them.
