Gas Tax Hike Hard Sell in Congress

A bipartisan commission created under the 2005 highway law released its long-awaited report Tuesday, recommending an increase of up to 40 cents per gallon in the federal gasoline tax and renewing a contentious debate in Congress.

The collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis last Aug.1 spurred a new sense of urgency among lawmakers grappling for ways to finance modernization of the nation's aging infrastructure.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar , D-Minn., is sympathetic to raising the gas tax. But President Bush and GOP lawmakers fiercely oppose increasing the 18.4 cents per gallon federal tax, which has not changed since 1993..

Congress is unlikely to address the issue in an election year, especially in light of projections that gasoline prices will top $3.50 a gallon this summer.

The 12-member commission, called the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, recommended almost doubling the federal gasoline tax over the next five years, boosting it in increments of 5 cents to 8 cents per year. The rate would be indexed thereafter to the rate of change in construction costs, according to an executive summary of the report.

Commissioner Jack L. Schenendorf, an attorney at Covington & Burling who concentrates on transportation legislation, said the gas tax increase was only one of many funding proposals considered but is the best short-term solution to jumpstart an overhaul of the nation's infrastructure.

"Gas taxes are hard politically to raise. They aren't popular with people when they don't know how it is being spent," he said. "But there's no magic bullet. It costs money."

The commission said the next highway bill, which Congress will tackle in 2009, should mandate a national study into a transition to a fee based on the number of miles that vehicles are driven.

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