Events in Washington, DC, could help provide some money to clear up road problems in Oklahoma, but the state is considering a proposal that would ask truckdrivers and other motorists to pay for part of the work, a report from The Daily Oklahoman said recently.

The state's bridges are rated No. 1 in the country for deficiencies.

State legislators are considering submitting a fuel-tax increase to voters to pay for bridges and highways, the paper reported. Gas taxes would go up 5 cents, but diesel would go up 8 cents a gallon. The increases would raise $140 million.

However, the proposed increase isn't their only possible source of funds to address the problem.

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) will take over as chairman of the Senate committee in charge of federal highway dollars when the GOP takes control of the chamber, and U.S. Reps. John Sullivan (R-Tulsa) and Brad Carson (D-Claremore) will serve on the committee that handles those matters in the House.

That could, the newspaper said, help the state pull in more highway dollars to deal with its bad bridges.

The state cares for 6,700 bridges, Gary Ridley, director of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, told the paper. Of those, more than 1,500 are structurally deficient or obsolete. More than half of the city- and county-owned bridges in the state are in the same shape.