Federal fuel taxes (18.3 cents per gallon) paid into the federal highway trust fund are returned to the states according to mathematical formulae that have become increasingly outdated, contends Ronald D. Utt with the Heritage Foundation in a new report. The methodology creates winners and losers.
“The shortchanged states are typically those with above-average population growth whose transportation needs exceed those of the slower-growing states, which often receive shares greater than what they pay in,” he writes. The 28 donor states, he suggests, should “work together to seek an end to the inequities embodied in current law.”
Virginia, as it happens, is a donor state. According to Utt’s calculations, Virginia’s “return ratio” in 2009 was 0.895, which means it received 89.5 cents back for every dollar paid into the federal trust fund. That represents a deterioration from its long-term return ratio of 96.1 cents per dollar over the 1956-2009 period.