The tax is always lower on the other side of the fence. Or is it?

Andy Shook expressed a familiar feeling when he returned to North Carolina recently. He believed he had moved into a higher tax bracket.

Bruce, after leaving NC in 1983, going to Atlanta, SC (Metro CLT) and returning to Apex, I am blown away by all the new, increased taxes in NC. In GA, it is written into the State constitution that all gas tax $ can only be spent on roads and bridges. They have the 2nd lowest gas tax and excellent roads. ...
SC, which has the lowest gas tax, also has it written that all gas tax only go to roads, bridges and heavy DOT equipment.

I prepared to commiserate with Andy. First, though, I did a little research. ...

Carol Bumpass wants to hear the rest of the story. So do Marjorie Minor, Jon Barsanti and Bob Eby.

I reported last week ("Frugal drivers put road funds in peril") that DOT is hurtin' because of a decline in revenues from the gas tax and the highway use tax on car sales.  And that's because the high price of gas has forced us to cut our driving — and our taxed spending on gas and cars.

Meanwhile, the state is growing like crazy and roadbuilding costs have doubled in six years. We need more transportation money, not less.

"Why not so a similar article on how robbery of the state's highway [trust] fund by our government officials and legislators has put our road funds in peril?" Bumpass said by e-mail.

The yearly transfer from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund was established by law at $170 million in 1989.  It became a genuine raid in 2001 when Gov. Easley and the legislative Dems decided they needed more than that to balance the General Fund budget.

If you've been thinking that they repaid the extra $525 million they removed from the Highway Trust Fund over five years -- you're only 24 percent correct.

Read today's Road Worrier ("Where do gas taxes really go?") -- and do the math.

As Minor says:  

"This is money that they charged us for gas taxes. It’s supposed to be for roads. They keep taking it away.

"Then the DOT turns around and says, ‘Well, gee, we don’t have any money.’ And I wonder, ‘why not?’ 

As gas costs more, Americans continue to cut down on their driving. In May, the Federal Highway Administration says, traffic counts on all public roads in the United States were 3.7 percent -- or 9.6 billion vehicle miles -- lower than in May 2007.

That's the third-biggest monthly drop in the 66 years since the feds began keeping count.

It continues a seven-month decline. From November through May, Americans drove 40.5 billion fewer miles than during the same period a year earlier.

Driving fewer miles means buying fewer gallons of gas and diesel fuel, and that means state and federal governments are collecting less fuel tax money.

The state tax is 30.15 cents per gallon, the highest rate now allowed by state law. The feds collect 18.4 cents per gallon gas and 24.4 cents per gallon diesel.

Congress is trying to figure out ways to raise more money for road and bridge repair and expansion, and other transportation needs.  The Bush administration opposes any increase in the federal gas tax.

“By driving less and using more fuel-efficient vehicles, Americans are showing us that the highways of tomorrow cannot be supported solely by the federal gas tax,” Mary E. Peters, the US transportation secretary, said today in a press release.  “We must embrace more sustainable funding sources for highways and bridges through more sustainable and effective ways such as congestion pricing and private activity bonds.”

Updated 4:45 p.m. WEDNESDAY. With legislators itching to hit the road in the next few days — maybe by the end of this week — final action was taken several transportation bills in the waning days of the General Assembly:

Wide boats. H 2167 would let fishermen and other recreational boaters haul boats and trailers up to 10 feet wide on state roads without permits, up from the current 8.5-foot limit. It still faces a veto threat from Gov. Mike Easley unless nighttime towing -- dangerous on narrow roads, the Highway Patrol says -- is banned.

The Senate trimmed 6 inches from the nighttime regulation to allow boats and trailers up to 9.5 feet wide on the roads after dark, and approved the bill today. Now the House will consider it and Easley’s effort to keep 8.5 feet as the width limit for nighttime towing.

Driver's licenses. S 1799 authorizes DMV to start printing driver's licenses with laser-engraved black-and-white mugshots instead of the current color photo mugshots. That's partly to save money and also because the mugs would actually be engraved on your plastic license card -- supposedly making it harder than with a printed photo to change your looks with, say, a Groucho mustache and glasses.

Current laser technology is limited to B&W images, but DMV would have the option in the future to change to laser-engraved color images. The Senate approved it and sent it to the governor today.

This bill also backs down from state pledge to deliver all driver's licenses to home addresses by mail. ...

A long-term spending plan included in the new state budget will give the N.C. Turnpike Authority $25 million this year and, by 2010, a total of $99 million a year to start building three toll roads in central North Carolina and a toll bridge on the northern coast.

The first $25 million a year will help clear the way for construction to start in December on the 18-mile Triangle Expressway, a $967 million project in Research Triangle Park and western Wake County. Traffic could start moving on parts the TriEx by the end of 2010.

Over the next two years the funding grows with money to help start construction on toll roads in Union and Gaston counties and a toll bridge across Currituck Sound.

Projections for traffic counts and toll collections show that the turnpike authority won’t collect enough money from drivers to cover the cost of building, operating and maintaining its planned toll projects over the next 40 years. Legislators were asked to cover the gaps between project costs and toll collections.

Rep. Becky Carney of Charlotte, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, postponed action today on her bill (HB 2363) to give Triangle voters the power to pay for transit improvements with a new half-cent local sales tax.

Carney's bill and a similar Senate measure would set up a state structure for financing urban bus and rail transit projects, and it would give voters in urban areas new options to tax themselves for transit.

Its sponsors included 11 of the 23 House and Senate members who represent Wake, Durham and Orange counties. Several members of the Triangle delegation have said local voters and county commissioners should decide whether to raise the sales tax to help finance an $8.2 billion plan to build a bus, rail and streetcar network by 2035.

Senate leaders agree, in their proposed budget released today, with House plans to provide turnpike "gap" money that would allow
construction to start this fall on the planned 18-mile Triangle Expressway.

The Senate goes farther than the House in future years to provide gap funds for three other toll projects.