Raise Gas Tax for Sake of Roads?

By the end of the decade, the Federal Highway Trust Fund is expect to be depleted and running a deficit. Because it funds nearly half of all of the nation's highway construction, Congress is going to be faced with making an unpalatable choice: either increase the tax or allow the country's backlog of road and bridge needs to grow even longer, REPORTS The Ledger, a newspaper based in Lakeland, Fla.

Without a hike in the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax - which hasn't been increased since 1993 when gasoline cost about $1.10 a gallon - the Congressional Budget Office is predicting the highway fund will run $8 billion in the red by 2010, when Congress is set to rewrite the highway initiative.

At the same time, gas prices are spiking and consumers are choosing fuel-efficient cars over the old gas guzzlers.

Is it time to raise the federal gas tax? Do politicians have the nerve to do this?
If gas is no longer the best item to tax for money to build roads, then what is? Where should the money come from?
Tell our blog!