Hiking the state’s gasoline tax won’t be easy or popular, but it probably is necessary.

Take a ride down a bumpy, pot-hole filled road, and you’ll feel just how necessary. The state’s gasoline tax is used to pay for highways, bridges and other transportation needs. Mississippi’s tax on gasoline and diesel fuel has been 18.8 cents per gallon since 1987.

While I don’t enjoy paying more to fill up, I also don’t enjoy driving on crumbling roads and bridges. The money to maintain infrastructure has to come from somewhere, and the gasoline tax is the most obvious place. After all, it’s those of us buying gas who are using those roads and bridges and causing them to deteriorate.

And with gas prices hovering near $2.30, it would seem now would be the best time to increase the tax. But there was no serious discussion of any sort of tax increase during the most recent legislative session. I wonder why? Could it be because it’s an election year?

It will take bold leadership and bipartisan agreement to hike the tax or even restructure it. The process could take years, according to the policy director of a national group called Transportation for America. The group addressed state business leaders recently.

He said that across the nation, gas tax revenues are stagnant, in part, because people are driving more fuel-efficient vehicles and are buying less fuel, The Associated Press reported. At the same time, the costs of highway and bridge construction are increasing.

“Congress, shockingly, hasn’t done anything to solve the problem,” Joe McAndrew said during the annual meeting of the Mississippi Economic Council.

In other words, Congress hasn’t increased the federal gas tax – likely for the same reason state legislators haven’t. Nobody wants to propose a tax increase. But those pesky taxes are what keep the state and nation’s infrastructure in usable condition.

Those opposed to a tax hike argue that there’s likely enough wasteful spending at the state and national level to negate the need for an increase if it was eliminated. That’s probably accurate. But those folks aren’t proposing meaningful ways to eliminate waste. Simply identifying a problem without proposing a solution isn’t helpful.

McAndrew said 12 states have increased or restructured their gasoline tax since 2012 to help pay for highways and other transportation projects. It’s worth watching to see how those tax increases play out. Maybe an increase won’t negatively affect the economy by suppressing consumer spending. Maybe improving infrastructure will actually spur economic development.

Here in Mississippi, it will take strong local support for a tax increase for legislators to even consider it. City and county elected officials will have to push for the increase – or at least not publicly denounce it. It won’t be a popular position; raising taxes never is. But it may be the most prudent one.

Luke Horton is the publisher of The Daily Leader.