Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, November 19, 2013.

The money isn't there. You can scan the state budget all day long, but you won't find $4.5 billion in loose change for widening and improving 182 miles of Interstate 95 in North Carolina.

It's simple: There will be revenue increases or there will be no I-95 upgrade, with safety standards met, lanes added, high-speed interchanges built and bridges raised. If you're against all revenue increases, you're against the upgrade.

Some people take that exact position, arguing that I-95 isn't all that bad yet. They're entitled to that view - which, carried to its logical extreme, means no commitments need be made until the highway has become nearly impassable.

Highway engineers have a different view and are entitled to it as well. They say the interstate is already beyond its engineered life expectancy along the entire 182 miles and will deteriorate more rapidly as time goes on.

Some people would like to have the federal government pay for the upgrade through an increase in the motor fuels tax. But the upgrade isn't the responsibility of the Congress. Besides: The U.S. Constitution says all bills for revenue must originate in the House of Representatives. Can you imagine that happening?

The upgrade requires a stable revenue stream. The state's gasoline tax is a dwindling source of revenue.

Some call for replacing the gas tax with a sales tax. This is possible, but it could not be a straightforward tradeoff. A devalued gas tax would have to be replaced with a stepped-up sales tax approved by our state's General Assembly. Can you see that happening?

That's everything that is on the table. All of it.

Department of Transportation planners say that fiscal reality is forcing them to put the user fee - tolls - back on the table. But they don't have the authority to do that, and the public can't even have a real-world discussion about adequate funds and what's achievable, unless the lawmakers put the user fee back in play.

Newcomers may need to be told that it was the lawmakers who voted to take the user fee off the table in the first place. And Gov. Pat McCrory signed it into law.

Everything that's on the table puts the burden on North Carolina taxpayers - and comes up short.

Only tolls would put the burden on those who use I-95, more than half of whom hail from out of state. But we're just spinning our wheels unless the legislature puts a user fee back on the table.