Right now, gasoline and diesel fuel is taxed by the gallon. If you buy a gallon of gasoline, the price you pay includes 16 cents of state taxes. For diesel fuel it's 13 cents. Those tax levels remain the same whether the price of the gasoline is $2 a gallon or $4 a gallon.

The proposal would mean that as the price of fuel rises, so would the amount of taxes paid.

So, a price-based fuel tax is not going to be an instantly popular idea, but it has some merit.

The fuel tax essentially is a user tax. The people who pay the taxes get its primary benefits in the form of funding for better roads, highways and bridges.

Many of those paying the tax aren't Oklahomans. The state's central location means that several key trucking routes pass through the state. Out-of-state drivers buy fuel here and leave their tax money to improve our roads.

Oklahoma's transportation system needs work, but fixing bad roads requires money. As cars have become more efficient, fuel tax revenue has stagnated. In fiscal 2012, the state transportation fund's cut of gasoline tax revenue was $2 million more than it was in fiscal 2013.

The state's transportation needs have increased pressure on legislators to take transportation funding from other tax revenues, meaning there is less left over for other priorities, including education.

There are valid concerns on the other side of this issue, including that fuel taxes hurt the poor and middle classes disproportionately and if the tax shifts to a price basis, it hurt them more when things are toughest — in times of rising prices.

That said, we think most Oklahomans are ready to give fair consideration to a change in the way fuel taxes are figured if it comes with a thorough accounting of how the money has been used in the past, an adequate explanation of how the money will be used in the future and a believable promise that it won't be misused ever.