Faced with a $200 million shortfall in transportation funding, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter told The Idaho Statesman in July, “I’ve always been a user-pay person. If you’re going to use a resource and that resource needs some government service attached to it, then you need to pay for that service.”

So, naturally, he is backing a gasoline tax increase, because that is the most efficient way to charge the user, right? Wrong.

During his State of the State speech on Monday, Otter recommended raising annual registration fees for automobiles. He floated the possibility of local option taxes so municipalities can raise their own funds. He talked of freeing up $17 million annually by moving the budget for the Idaho State Patrol to the general fund.

But he was silent on the biggest potential revenue raiser of them all: the gasoline tax. He also didn’t mention tolls for some of the more congested roads in the Boise area. He ignored mass transit, too.

In failing to face up, he showed that he hasn’t mustered the political will to raise the money needed to address the state’s crumbling roads and bridges. Even if auto registration fees were hiked as high as 75 percent, as was recommended last year, only $13.1 million a year would be raised. The annual tab for road maintenance and construction is expected to climb $45 million annually, for a total of $6.1 billion over 30 years.

Idaho needs to raise some serious cash, and the longer it waits, the higher the ultimate tab will be. Highway construction costs alone rose 6 percent in the past year.

Last year, it was estimated that the state could raise $108 million annually by slapping a 6 percent sales tax on gasoline. The levy per gallon is 25 cents and hasn’t been raised in a decade.

Registration fees haven’t been raised in 10 years either, and a 75 percent boost would still give the state one of the lowest fees in the nation. The tab for a seven-year-old car would go from $24 to $42. By way of comparison, the owners of a 2006 Toyota Camry would be charged $49 in Idaho. In Maine, it costs $425 to register the same car.

Idaho has neglected road maintenance for too long. Safety has been compromised, and substandard roads exacerbate congestion, which hurts the economy. There will never be a time when a tax increase is popular, so Idaho’s leaders need to decide whether they will pass the problem along – as their predecessors have – or courageously tackle it.

A good start would be for the governor to step forward with a plan that emphasizes a principle he’s already espoused: users pay.