EDITORIAL: Let the gas tax die

If Congress does nothing, the cost of gasoline will drop 14 cents per gallon on Sept. 30. That not only would be a boon to consumers oppressed by hefty prices at the pump but also would go a long way toward ending one of Washington’s favorite accounting gimmicks. The public is supposed to think the 18.4 cents tossed to Uncle Sam for every gallon of unleaded (24.4 cents for diesel) goes to roads and bridges. Fifty-five years ago, it was true that the 3-cent-per-gallon levy went directly into the concrete and steel that gave us the Interstate Highway System. The authorization for most of the current tax expires next month, and Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist fears President Obama will use jobs as an excuse to boost this tax. “His plan is going to be the highway bill,” Mr. Norquist said in an editorial board meeting at The Washington Times. “Everyone wants highways, but you give them the money, they don’t build highways. They build everything but highways.” Out of the $29 billion in fuel-tax revenue collected this year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated $7.6 billion would be diverted into mass-transit projects. That is only part of the problem. One look at the Federal Highway Administration’s budget shows core spending priorities in the “highway” account frequently have nothing to do with highways. For example, the agency allocates $6.8 billion to a “livable communities” program designed to promote a leftist anything-but-the-automobile agenda. Another $8.9 billion will be blown on “environmental sustainability” schemes, and $2.5 billion will go to safety - that’s the code word for paying local cops overtime to set up speed traps and East German-style roadblocks...more