State and Federal Gas Taxes

• State and federal gas tax are fixed amounts per gallon, not a percentage of the price, like sales tax.
• There is no indexing of either federal or state gas taxes to account for inflation
• Federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and was last increased in 1993
• State gas tax is 18 cents per gallon, and was last increased in 1994
• Increased fuel efficiency of cars mean less gas tax revenues per vehicle
  • Purchasing power of gas tax is rapidly eroding
• Federal and state gas tax that used to be enough to maintain and improve the highway system now only can cover less 70% of the cost of simply maintaining state highways
• There is no federal or state gas tax money going for highway improvements in the State Transportation Improvement Program anymore. The majority of State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) dollars are now generated by the sales tax on gasoline provided by Proposition 42.

Gas Tax Fact Sheet (PDF)