Tax file: Plugging holes in highway funds

Following the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minnesota, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Jim Oberstar (D-MN.) called for a five-cents-per-gallon increase in federal fuels taxes. That proposal ran into immediate opposition from President Bush and congressional Republicans, and the idea seems unlikely to be enacted.

However, Congress will need to find additional revenues to keep the highway account of the federal Highway Trust Fund from running out of money in late 2008, according to recently revised estimates from both the Congressional Budget Office and the White House Office of Management and Budget. Thus, truckers could face new compliance-tightening measures or other nonfuel tax increases next year.