To get Americans to support any fuel tax increases, the states have to be responsible alone for more of the share than they are. That is the only way the states can be goaded by the road using public to get their own priorities straight, to cut out the fat, the desirable and get the necessary done and on time and for the best price.
As long as states can mismanage their own road priorities and try to use the federal highway funds as a slush fund for every non-priority road project and every project other than roads, it is only right that voters don’t want to give them more funds.
The states already themselves charge higher gas taxes than the feds do. The highway trust fund has been a slush fund since day one. It never should have come to be; it’s pure socialism, at both state and federal level.