Filling up our new minivan is painful. It cost over $80 this past weekend with gas prices at $4-plus a gallon.

How much higher the price will go depends on political unrest in the Middle East, demand from developing nations, the strength of the U.S. dollar -- and Maryland politicians.

While we can't control three of the four issues, our elected officials should not add to the price of fuel at a time of escalating food prices and only tentative signs of growth in a state where residents face some of the longest commutes to work. Census figures show that only New York beats Maryland in regards to the percentage of residents who spend more than an hour getting to work.

Delegate Sheila Hixon, D-20, chairwoman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said raising taxes on gasoline is easier than on other products and services because "people see it as a user fee." But that perception is false.

The 23.5 cents gleaned by the state on each gallon is theoretically supposed to be spent building and maintaining Maryland's roads and bridges. But in reality that money often has no connection to transportation.

Since 2003 the Transportation Trust Fund is $1 billion poorer thanks to repeated raids on it to balance the budget. Stealing from the fund was a bipartisan effort accelerated under Gov. Martin O'Malley as tax revenue -- but not government spending -- shrank.

Without a legal guarantee that higher taxes would only be used to pay for the $40 billion in planned but unfunded transportation projects, legislators should table any talk of raising taxes when or if they come up in a special session scheduled later this year for congressional redistricting. It's immoral to raise taxes in the name of funding roads and then use the money for schools or other government services, and would only perpetuate the funding shortfall.

Second, raising taxes without a clear plan of how to spend the money makes no sense. "Smart growth" policies have failed miserably in Maryland, as people like to drive. New spending must focus on alleviating some of the worst congestion in the country instead of building public transit that serves only a small fraction of the people -- but at great cost to everyone.

As Wendell Cox writes in The Maryland Journal (a publication of the Maryland Public Policy Institute), "despite policies that have provided insufficient capacity improvement, the demand for automobile use, especially by single-occupant commuters, has increased. ... This means that traffic congestion will continue to worsen, travel speeds will decline and there will be more 'stop and go' traffic."

Clogged roads are not only bad for the environment, they reduce productivity and hamper growth.

Legislators will likely threaten collapsed bridges and thousands of dead drivers as a means to pass higher gas taxes in the special session. But the real emergency is the lack of leadership in Annapolis. If federal stimulus spending can serve as a guide, our elected officials will use money for everything except its intended purpose. Don't let them fool you into thinking otherwise.