Who writes the check to pay for gasoline taxes (yes, I know the drivers really pay it)? Is it every gas station? The distributors? The refiners?
Do they write a check directly to the federal government or do they pay their own states who then send the federal portion to Washington?
Other than maybe a penny or two to pay for roads necessary for defense but not used much by the locals (Alaska is the only place left like that I can think of), I see no reason why the taxing and paying for roads shouldn't be left entirely to the states. The primary use of federal gas taxes now is to force states to put in rules on blood alcohol limits, speed limits, seat belts, helmets and even capitalization and typeface selection of road signs that the Constitution doesn't allow the federal government to regulate directly.
This will be a wild-assed-guess:
I think that when gasoline sellers send in their forms & payments for state sales taxes, they break down the Federal fuel taxes & the state fuel taxes in the same reports & submit the payments to the states, which then spend more money on administrative costs reviewing the paperwork & sending money on to the Feds.
Then the Feds do more administrative work & return some of the money back to the states.
What a revolving door of paperwork!!!!
Who’s most responsible for using up reams of paper?
Them or me?