Dive Brief:

• Recent articles have floated three ideas for keeping the Federal Highway Trust Fund capable of investing in new construction projects after the current fiscal year ends.
• One idea is a straight mileage tax, using some sort of tracking device to know how much to assess vehicles' owners, while another is to raise the federal gasoline tax, which hasn't budged a bit since 1993.
• A third proposal would use a combination of weight and mileage, which would shift the burden toward trucks that beat up on the highways more than cars do.

Dive Insight:

It's as easy to find reasons things won't happen as it is to understand why something has to happen if we're not going to lose a fund that is important to all states and downright critical to some -- not to mention important to contractors who do highway work. A higher tax will bring howls of protest. Some sort of GPS-based mileage tracker will likely be seen as Big Brother tracking us all. Congress needs to get on the issue, whatever the solution.