Article: What Pa.’s higher gasoline tax will afford.

The federal excise tax on a gallon of gasoline is 18.4¢.  It’s been  18.4¢ since 1993, when Clinton raised it over the dead bodies of Republicans.  Since then, it’s lost something like 40% of its purchasing power.  It’s a no-brainer to put this back to where it would have been had it been pegged to inflation like it should have been and then peg it to inflation.  That way, at least, it doesn’t lose purchasing power.  There is at least one proposal in Congress to raise it by 12¢ and index it to inflation, but that won’t pass in an election year.