Jeebus just raise the goddamn gas tax. You have a collection and enforcement mechanism already in place and a tax which is mostly invisible to taxpayers. The gas tax is superior to a VMT tax in a variety of ways. One day electric vehicles might be a problem, but right now the problem is that gas taxes aren't indexed to inflation.
But, yes, smart politician, increasing the gas tax is political poison but adding an exciting new tax which would require people to regularly write yet another check to the government will be extremely popular.
