The blizzard of the century’s legacy: Plenty of potholes

The mantle of white, courtesy of a record-breaking snowfall, was certainly lovely to look at for a couple weeks. But the two-day blizzard has left behind a costly legacy of street repairs and a gazillion potholes that will occupy maintenance forces for the months to come.
Or will it?

While dodging all the crevices and craters, I wondered if the roads will ever be properly repaired, given the parlous state of finance at all levels of government. Really, though, they must be fixed because obstruction-free roads are an absolute necessity to the free flow of commerce.
This is an emergency that needs our immediate attention as winter hopefully fades away.
There’s nothing new about the crumbling infrastructure of paved roads after a rough winter like the one we’ve been plowing through.
What looms darkly, of course, is the difficulty in obtaining the funds to buy needed materials and paying people to make the repairs. Although thoughts of raising taxes are universally disparaged, here’s a free-of-charge suggestion I humbly offer to our elected officials for consideration:
With an absolute “sunset” date, increase the state tax on motor fuels by 5 cents for a period of a few months, and use the revenue exclusively for buying asphalt and other material and paying people to repair the roads. Establish a formula to divide the proceeds of this temporary tax between relevant state, county and city highway and street maintenance departments.

This is a real emergency for the state and its political subdivisions. The public interest, convenience and necessity demands action. It’s a given that we all hate taxes, but here’s a way to come up with dedicated funds to repair our damaged roads. Between the governor and our elected officials, there has to be a way to make this happen. Let’s see how they handle this emergency.