The Road commissioners in Illinois have a difficult task on a good day, and often the day is not that good. No, it doesn’t snow every day, the roads don’t wash away that often and bridges don’t collapse regularly. But the funding for the everyday work, in particular the money they receive from the motor fuel tax, continues to diminish while the cost of the everyday work goes up, sometimes every day.

What to do?

The motor fuel tax has not changed since 1990, it is not a percentage but a flat rate of 19 cents a gallon, with an added 2.5 cents on diesel buy the gallon. So as the cost of fuel rises and falls the tax remains the same. The cost of material for road repair does not stay flat, the cost of road materials has hardly been flat, and unlike fuel it only rises, more than doubling over time.

The money from the two taxes, gas and diesel with its 2.5 cent bump, go into the Motor Fuel Tax Fund, then begin the slow decent into the flow chart of fund diversion.

A river is a collection of streams that are a collection of little creeks and waterways and slowly it all combines into a flow that ends up in the ocean.  The Motor Fuel Tax Fund takes the opposite route; it starts as two inputs, gas tax, diesel tax, and then plops into the MFT fund. Right away the diesel differential runs off the side into the State construction account.  Then the dividing up begins, the Boating Act gets some the Grade Crossing folks are there, there are 6 more tributaries running off into lake administration and that gives us the MFT Balance, now smaller, to divide some more.

 A 55/45 split between the Locals and the State is up next, the state divides into two parts, construction and roads, the locals split it up four ways. The last little box of that local side or 55% of the balance is just under 16% for the Road district. That is really more like 5% of the total tax collected.

Well what used to do tens of miles of road repair now may do half a dozen miles of township road work, the cost has risen substantially for material. The fuel to run the equipment is much higher and there has been only a slight change in labor cost.

Well this puts the local Road Commissioner in an awkward position; they want to raise your taxes. Be it in the form of a Motor Fuel Tax bump, or taxing your Hybrid, or a local levy increase, they want more revenue to do their job. This is coming from a group of folks known for their conservative, practical nature, their ability to do the most with what they have. Their job is to get you down the road quite literally, and if you think it is easy try all night in January with blowing drifting snow or patching a hole in July in the 100 degree shade.

If you know me you know I travel light, my biggest motorcycle tops out at 800 pounds, and I am also cheap, I started commuting two wheel style when the ’79 oil crisis happened. So should my tiny 45MPG commute or a little hybrid be hit harder than the crew cab dually with one guy in it? Or would it make more sense to change the MFT to a percentage of the per gallon cost at the pump. Yep, a logistical nightmare at the gas station, but it can be done. Your local gas pump can take your credit card and digest that transaction faster than even I can fill a 3 gallon motorcycle tank. It can be programmed to do the math.  

Meanwhile think of the poor Road Commissioner, they quietly need to go against their politics and want to raise your taxes. What is your idea?