WASHINGTON A high-powered federal commission has recommended that Congress adopt a sweeping array of new and inflated highway user fees.

Critics of the commissions report say it does not address the way transportation money is spent nor does it call for reform.

The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission recommended Congress increase fuel taxes by 15 cents per gallon in the near term, eventually replacing the fuel tax with a new tax on vehicle miles traveled.

Other revenue-generating ideas presented by the commission include a new sales tax on fuel; increases to the Heavy Vehicle Use Tax and other user fees, and a carbon cap-and-trade system that could hit users of diesel vehicles hard.

Critics of the recommendations point out the commission failed to address out-of-control spending of transportation funds for non-transportation uses.

That more money needs to be spent on aging U.S. roads and bridges during the next few years generally has become widely accepted across the nation. And transportation leaders in Congress will draft the next large-scale highway funding reauthorization bill later this year.

Over half the miles in the federal-aid highway system are in less than good condition, more than one-quarter of the nations bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and roughly one-quarter of the nations bus and rail assets are in marginal or poor condition, commissioners said in their report.

But many groups that acknowledge the need to improve the highway system say they cannot support a case for new or higher taxes without sufficient reform and oversight built into the solution.

And while the commission states the need for a host of new taxes and fees, it also wants Congress to give states more power to implement more tolling and congestion pricing and to sell or lease infrastructure to the private sector.

Many highway user groups remain strongly opposed to the tolling of existing highways.