Transportation is not a topic that gets much attention, until of course someone recommends raising gas prices.

"We recommended a 40 cents a gallon fuel tax increase which is not the most popular decision I'm sure a lot of people could have made," said Tom Skancke, with the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.

Not only is raising the fuel tax unpopular, convincing people to pay more for gas is nearly impossible. But that is what the commission is proposing even though Hawaii already pays the most in the country in fuel tax.

"We looked at what was broken," Skancke said.

Skancke is on the commission which found that the government wastes a lot of time and money on projects. Shocking I know. But what is really worrisome is that there are so many projects the federal transportation fund is running on empty.

"I can tell you that the federal government does not have the money. Our highway trust fund will be bankrupt in May or June of this year," Skancke said.

"Hawaii used to get two times what our tax payers put into the highway trust fund so it means that there is no money to get one time or even less than that. The money will just stop," said Dale Evans, Chairman of the Hawaii Highway Users Alliance.

That means projects like the $5 billion Oahu transit system will have a tough time getting any more federal money.

"I can tell you need additional capacity on the H1 freeway. As a transportation consultant I can tell you that highway is in trouble both in a performance point of view and a maintenance point of view," Skancke said.

Which is why he is meeting with lawmakers to get them to protect state and local funds to be used on transportation issues before the money is gone.

He also asked lawmakers to look at ways to raise private money for projects and to look at using toll roads. Otherwise it's back to talking about raising the gas tax.

No matter what Skancke and the commission said, Honolulu Mayor's Mufi Hannemann’s office believes it will get federal money for the proposed transit system.

The state has already secured $15 million from federal funds and expects to get another $700 million to a billion dollars to help pay for the transit project.

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