As roads and bridges in Illinois crumble, so too does the primary source of revenue the state relies on to fix them — the gas tax.

 

Illinois adds 19 cents to the pump price of each gallon of gas to underwrite road work, a fee that hasn’t changed in 27 years even though inflation has cut the purchasing power by half. And with cars getting ever better gas mileage, the so-called Motor Fuel Tax reaps less today to fund repairs than it did a decade ago: $1.38 billion in 2007, $1.28 billion last year, state data show.

 

Experts warn that the same march of technology that has helped lay waste to manufacturing, in-store retailers, print-on-paper newspapers and other businesses, will soon exact a similar toll on the revenue-generating power of the gas tax. That will set Illinois, other states and the federal government, which levies a similar tax for road work, scrambling for alternatives.

 

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