From 1932, when Congress first enacted an excise tax on gasoline, until 1956, the proceeds of the gas tax went into general revenues, although the amount raised each year was used as an informal benchmark for Federal highway spending. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 established the Highway Trust Fund and stipulated that 100% of the gas tax be deposited into the fund. From 1956 to 1982, the Highway Trust Fund was used solely to finance expenditures from the federal highway program.

Highway Trust Fund revenues were first allocated to mass transit in the Surface Transportation Act of 1982, when Congress raised the gas tax from four cents per gallon to nine cents per gallon and dedicated one cent, or 20 percent, of the increase to the newly-established Mass Transit Account. Each time there has been an increase in the amount of gas tax going into the Highway Trust Fund—1990, 1993 and 1997—20 percent of the increase has been allocated to the Transit Account and 80 percent to the Highway Account. Of the current gasoline tax of 18.3 cents per gallon, 2.86 cents per gallon is allocated to the Mass Transit Account.

Three tables on the gasoline tax follow.

• Table 1 provides a history of the gasoline tax and how it has been distributed among various uses from 1932 to the present.

• Table 2 shows the percentage distribution of the gasoline tax among the different uses, including amounts used for general revenues and deficit reduction.

• Table 3 show how the portion of the gasoline tax allocated to the Highway Trust Fund has been distributed among the Highway and Transit accounts in percentage terms. This table excludes the portion of the gas tax used for deficit reduction. Note that the first lines in Tables 2 and 3 omit the 0.1 cent per gallon dedicated to repairing underground storage facilities.

		Purpose
Date	Tax Rate in cents per gallon	General Revenues	Highway Account	Mass Transit Account	Other Trust Funds
June 21, 1932	1.0	1.0
June 17, 1933	1.5	1.5
Jan. 1, 1934	1.0	1.0
July 1, 1940	1.5	1.5
Nov. 1, 1951	2.0	2.0
July 1, 1956	3.0		3.0
Oct. 1, 1959	4.0		4.0
Apr. 1, 1983	9.0		8.0	1.0
Jan. 1, 1987	9.1		8.0	1.0	0.1
Sep. 1, 1990	9.0		8.0	1.0
Dec. 1, 1990	14.1	2.5	10.0	1.5	0.1
Oct. 1, 1993	18.4	6.8	10.0	1.5	0.1
Oct. 1, 1995	18.4	4.3	12.0	2.0	0.1
Jan. 1, 1996	18.3	4.3	12.0	2.0
Oct. 1, 1997	18.4		15.44	2.86	0.1

	Percent Distribution
Date	General Revenues	Highways	Mass Transit Account	Other Trust Funds
Before 1983		100.0%
Apr. 1, 1983		88.9%	11.1%
Dec 1, 1990	17.7%	70.1%	10.6%	0.7%
Oct. 1, 1993	37.0%	54.3%	8.2%	0.5%
Oct. 1, 1995	23.4%	65.2%	10.9%	0.5%
Jan. 1, 1996	23.5%	65.6%	10.9%
Oct. 1, 1997		83.9%	15.5%	0.5%

	Percent Distribution
Date	Highways	Mass Transit Account	Other Trust Funds
Before 1983	100.0%
Apr. 1, 1983	88.9%	11.1%
Dec 1, 1990	86.2%	12.9%	0.9%
Oct. 1, 1995	85.1%	14.2%	0.7%
Jan. 1, 1996	85.7%	14.3%
Oct. 1, 1997	83.9%	15.5%	0.5%

Note: Table 3 excludes any portion of the gas tax allocated to general revenues.