Five states — California, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Dakota — as well as the District of Columbia have increased their gas tax rates in the past few months, according to a report from information services and software provider CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business. California’s tax nearly doubled in the past year, from 18 cents to 35.3 cents per gallon.

Proposals to increase the federal gas tax occasionally flit around the halls of Congress, though nothing has happened on that score since 1993. Senator George Voinovich thinks it’s a good idea, and he’s calling for an increase of “just a few cents” per gallon as part of a multiyear transportation bill that he claims “could help create jobs, improve our infrastructure, and better the climate.”

Voinovich is claiming support from some organizations that you might imagine would be screaming bloody murder at the thought, including the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

He also cites the example of President Reagan, who, he says, “fought hard for a gas tax increase once he realized the effect it would have on the economy.” The Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 provided a 5-cent gas tax increase that “created hundreds of thousands of jobs,” according to Voinovich.

President Obama has shown little enthusiasm for the proposal, however, and it’s doubtful whether Voinovich’s Republican colleagues in Congress, however much they might like to quote Mr. Reagan, would be inclined to follow his example in this case. ###