NEW ORLEANS -- The nation's state legislators want Congress to increase federal fuel taxes.

At its annual Legislative Summit in New Orleans, the National Conference of State Legislatures approved a new Surface Transportation Federalism policy that calls for a narrow, focused vision for the next multi-year federal transportation bill.

"Our current method of collecting revenue and paying for transportation projects is broken, especially at $4 per gallon gas prices," said Oregon state Sen. Bruce Starr, who helped draft the policy and leads the conference's Surface Transportation Reauthorization Working Group.

"Our policy calls on Congress to maintain the Highway Trust Fund, which is depleting at a rapid rate, and to do this they will have to increase the federal (fuel) tax."

Federal fuel taxes fund the nations transportation system, but have been diminishing in value in recent years as motorists buy more fuel efficient autos, alternative fuels enter the market, hybrid vehicle sales increase, people drive less, and the economy slows. All of those factors have decreased the revenue generated by per-gallon fuel taxes.

Federal fuel taxes were last increased in 1993.

In the short term, a fuel tax increase would assure the Highway Trust Fund remains solvent, but the legislators policy encourages Congress also to move toward new funding strategies.

One such concept is the vehicle-miles-traveled fee that charges a vehicle based on the number of miles driven. The NCSL encourages Congress to explore the vehicle-miles-traveled-fee concept, including the necessary vehicle-based technology to implement it as a new user fee to fund federal highway programs.

It seems a bit ironic for an organization composed of state legislators to be urging Congress to hike federal fuel taxes when the people doing the urging wont vote to increase fuel taxes in their own states.