Hybrids, electric vehicles pose funding challenge for next Kansas highway program

When Kansas lawmakers sit down to write a new multiyear transportation plan this coming session, one of the biggest challenges they’ll face is how to pay for it.

Traditionally, funding for highway construction and maintenance has come from the state’s motor fuel tax — 25 cents a gallon for regular gasoline and gas mixed with 10 percent ethyl alcohol; 27 cents a gallon for diesel.
The state also diverts about 16 percent of its sales tax revenue toward the highway fund, although those transfers have been interrupted in recent years as the state struggled with budget deficits.
But with more fuel-efficient cars on the road, traditional motor fuel taxes have not been generating the kind of revenue they once did. And now, with the mass production of all-electric plug-in vehicles, or EVs, on the horizon, Kansas, like many other states, will be looking to find other ways to fund highway projects.