North Carolina motorists might not get a break in gas and diesel fuel taxes this summer, after all.

The tax is scheduled to drop by 2 cents to 27.9 cents a gallon on July 1. The current tax, 29.9 cents, has been the highest allowed by state law since 2006.

But – to boost revenues for the state Department of Transportation – the Senate Finance Committee this week proposed to make 29.9 cents the minimum rate, instead of the maximum.

[Update 5/8/9: The full Senate approved this bill in a 34-12 vote Thursday (see today's story with reader comments). It is scheduled for a final Senate vote  Monday night. Then it goes to the House.] 

If the General Assembly agrees, the July 1 tax cut will be canceled and the rate will stay the same – and it could go higher in the future. ... [MORE]

Gas prices have dropped this fall to the lowest levels in more than four years, but North Carolina’s gas and diesel tax will remain at the highest level allowed by law — at least through next June.

If fuel prices stay relatively low for the next few months, the tax rate could make a substantial drop when it is adjusted again next July 1. . . .

Q: Inquiring readers want to know: Does our higher gas tax explain the difference between gas prices here and in neighboring states?

A: No.  North Carolina's combined state-federal gas tax of 48.6 cents is just 0.2 above the national average gas tax. 

And compared to our southern neighbors in ...

 - VIRGINIA: Our gas tax is 10.2 cents higher.  But our average gas price today is 37.3 cents higher.

 - SOUTH CAROLINA:  Our tax is 13.4 cents higher.  But our average gas price today is 30.1 cents higher.

North Carolina is bracing for a drastic reduction in federal road money as the federal Highway Trust Fund veers toward bankruptcy.

NCDOT has ordered a hiring freeze and may have to start delaying or canceling road and bridge projects for which Washington has, in the past, covered 80 percent of the cost.

Brad Wilson, chairman of the state's 21st Century Transportation Committee, says North Carolina should push its congressional delegation for action in Washington.

In recent years, the federal government has sent the state only about 85 cents out of every dollar North Carolinians pay in federal gas taxes. Now, we may get even less, and we may have to wait longer for it.

“We need to understand that our dependency upon the federal Highway Trust Fund may be even more tenuous than we realized, and North Carolina may need to be more aggressive in taking care of itself,” Wilson said today.

“To the extent that we don’t get federal reimbursement, we’ve got to make it up here or do without.”

Wilson's committee, which meets Thursday in Asheville, is preparing recommendations to boost state spending on roads, bridges and buses. Get ready to consider -- but not before the November elections -- new state and local taxes and a big bond issue.

Does John McCain still want to give everybody a three-month holiday from paying federal gas taxes? The McCain-Palin website still says he does.

I checked today after Mary Peters, the US transportation secretary, announced that the federal Highway Trust Fund is running on fumes and will run dry even sooner than everybody expected -- maybe before the end of September. This money comes from federal gas taxes.

In the past, this money covered 80 percent of highway and bridge project costs.

Now the feds say North Carolina's reimbursement for road projects will be cut by 30 to 40 percent. That's a hit of at least $300 million in the coming year, unless Congress comes up with money to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent. ...