Fuel-tax football

The idea of a fuel-tax holiday in Missouri to ease the price motorists pay at the pump has become something of a political football. It shouldn't.

Missouri has a comparatively low fuel tax, and revenue from the fuel tax is the primary source of state funding for transportation projects. Suspending the state fuel tax for two weeks, as proposed by some Democratic leaders, would cost the state more than $18 million. Given Missouri's tight funding for highways, bridges and other transportation projects, that would be make quite a dent in road work, as Gov. Matt Blunt rightly contends.

Some other states where fuel-tax holidays have been suggested have both a fuel tax and a sales tax on fuel. Those states would lose little revenue from a tax holiday, because as the price of gasoline goes up, so does the sales-tax revenue.

Gas prices are high, but there's no need to cut into state funding for roads just to fuel a political whim.