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this is semantics routing it thru the general fund, government accounting procedures. its on the books how much the tax brings in vs what it pays out.
the fact is, the gas tax has not been able to fund the updates to the transportation infrastructure, so there has been a need to borrow money from the "actual" general fund.
well the need to borrow from the general fund has been due to the fact the tax was at a set price per gallon,and not adjustable with inflation.considering gas was probably a nickel a gallon when first implemented,then rose to a quarter a gallon,then the us left the gold standard causing heavy inflation and stagflation,so just there by the original gas taxes,it was eventually irrelevant.it has been upped since then but inflation has constantly outpaced it.
another theory is cars becoming more efficient,which is bs,during the 70's amd 80's,compacts got better mpg than cars do now,and even surpassed hybrids,alot of subcompacts got 50-60 mpg,and alot of v6 cars got 40 mpg.so inflation played a role when the tax didnt fluctuate with the value of a dollar overtime,but even on the same argument ignoring the general fund discussion,we will have the same issue 5 or so years,as the dollar constantly inflates overtime,but the tax doesnt.