Maine needs to raise more money for the highway fund. The state faces a shortfall of about $50 million per year. It could be done by raising the gas and diesel taxes 7 cents above the current levels of 30 cents per gallon, which were set in 1993. That would raise the price of vehicle fuels by about 3 percent and would not put Maine out of line with other states. But Gov. LePage has made an unreasonable pledge not to raise any taxes — a misguided pledge shared by many Republicans.

LePage has proposed imposing a new tax on hybrid and all-electric vehicles, thereby putting a penalty on exactly the clean vehicles that the state should be encouraging people to buy. Admittedly, all-electric vehicles, purchasing no gasoline, do nothing to support maintenance of the roads they ride on. But they are here to stay, and there will be many more of them. Teslas are the status vehicles of now and the future.

This conundrum points up the obsolescence of the gas tax as the sole method of funding highways. Owners of gas-powered cars should not be subsidizing Tesla owners.

I suggest that drivers be taxed based on the damage they cause to roads. Damage is proportional to miles driven and vehicle weight. Both of those numbers are available to the city clerk who collects yearly excise taxes. A road use tax could be added. That seems fair to me. Perfectly fair, perfectly doable.

Ben Lounsbury, Auburn