There may be no such thing as a popular tax increase, but sometimes we find ourselves facing an inevitable tax increase. In 2012, gasoline could fit into that category.

Iowa has more than 3,000 major highway miles to take care of and ranks 14th among the states with 235,460 total lane-miles, according to the Federal Highway Administration. That is a tremendous amount of concrete and asphalt out there in the weather – cracking, buckling and sprouting potholes.

Meanwhile, we rank in a tie for 34th in the amount of taxes we pay on each gallon of gasoline. The American Petroleum Institute shows us with a 40.4-cent tax total per gallon. That’s made up of 21 cents in state excise tax, 1 cent for underground storage tanks and, like every other state, 18.4 cents in federal tax.

Logic suggests that the two rankings should be much closer together.

Highway wear doesn’t correlate exactly with gas purchases, but the connection is as close as any taxing situation can be. If you buy more gasoline than your neighbor, you probably drive more and should carry more of the load for the maintenance of the highways.

That’s why it’s good to see that a tax increase could happen in this session of the 84th General Assembly.

The Mason City Globe Gazette recently reported: “According to the Department of Transportation, roughly $215 million is needed to address Iowa’s ‘critical’ infrastructure needs and more than $1 billion would be needed to cover all the outstanding transportation projects, according to a state survey.

“DOT officials project that each penny increase in the state fuel tax would bring in about $22 million in revenue and (a) 1 percentage point increase in vehicle registration fees was expected to generate $50 million in additional revenue.”

Nobody likes to pay more, but good citizens have to take satisfaction in doing their part. It’s time to face the facts and pay up.