The federal gas tax. It needs to be raised. We’ve hammered this point home enough. Our infrastructure needs help, and that help involves money, and that money has to come from somewhere. Politicians know this. But they won’t touch the gas tax with a ten-foot pole. Why not? Because come election time, no one wants to be the candidate responsible for raising the most soundbite-ready and execrated tax on earth. Just think of all the campaign slogans you could come up with — and if you can’t think of any, there are about 200 strategists in Washington who can.

But what we may not realize is that much of the problem lies in public perception of the tax — specifically, what Americans know (or don’t) about how often it gets raised. Here’s a startling fact we came across in a poll done last year by Building America’s Future, Public Opinion Strategies, and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research: There is widespread agreement, among people of all demographics and political parties, that the federal gas tax goes up every year (unrelated to state gas taxes, which vary). Even people who closely follow infrastructure/transportation news believe this.

The survey was done from June 30 through July 2, 2009, and involved 800 adults, with a +3.46% margin of error. And a whopping 60% of the respondents — Republican and Democrat alike — believe the federal gas tax is raised annually. Geographic location didn’t make much of a difference — 61% believed this incorrect statement in the Northeast, 58% in the South, 54% in the Midwest, and 67% in the West.

The truth, of course, is that the federal gas tax has been unchanged at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993. And, in a colossal error of judgment, the government neglected to index it for inflation. So it’s worth even less now than it was then.

Other results of the poll made this lack of education on the tax even more striking: When asked, “Thinking about your experience with transportation infrastructure in your area today…in general, how would you rate the condition of and your experience with traffic congestion?” 31% answered “very poor.” A majority also answered that traffic congestion was not “a fact of life” — in other words, people believe something can be done about it. A majority (55%) also responded that our country’s infrastructure is outdated, unreliable, and inefficient. On the statement, “Transportation infrastructure funding decisions are based more on politics than need?” a whopping 62% said they strongly agree.

So in other words, we know that our infrastructure needs money, and that our lives could be improved by investment in it. We know that the principle way to raise money for infrastructure is through taxes, and that politicians are making infrastructure decisions based on political gain rather than public good. But what we don’t know is that we’re objecting to the raising of a tax that hasn’t been raised in almost 20 years, and could do wonders for all the troubles we’ve identified. Maybe it’s time for a Gas Tax Education Initiative?

Image courtesy of MCT.