As the clock ticks on federal highway funds, Congress agrees to a three-month extension.

Go ahead, pat yourself on the back for driving a hybrid, or an electric vehicle, or just a newer car with a higher-efficiency gasoline-powered engine. You're doing your part to help the planet, and saving at the gas pump.

But for every gallon less that you pump, excise taxes on drivers are depleting. And those are the taxes used to fund road maintenance, fixing the potholes and such that might give you road rage.

The gas tax in California was last raised in 1993, and due to higher-efficiency vehicles and inflation, gas tax revenue has declined by about 40 percent since the mid-'90s.

The dwindling gas tax revenue coupled with Congressional gridlock has federal and state transportation funding stuck in a precarious position.

With the federal Highway Trust Fund is scheduled to expire tomorrow, the U.S. Senate scrambled to pass a three-month patch bill Thursday afternoon, as reported by The Hill.  

The $8 billion stopgap funding will keep federal highway funds flowing—for now. A longer-term bill has become a political hot potato in Washington. 

"Congress’ failure to pass a long-term bill is of great concern to all of us who are engaged in the work of building and maintaining our nation’s transportation infrastructure," U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony T. Foxx wrote in an open letter July 14. "Careening from self-inflicted crisis to self-inflicted crisis undermines our system."

This is the funding situation for transportation repairs that forms the backdrop of the Transportation Agency for Monterey County's exploration of a two-thirds-cent sales tax measure for the 2016 ballot. (You can read more about that process and the potential tax measure in today's issue of the Weekly.)

It will be the fifth time TAMC has come to voters seeking funding. They require two-thirds to pass. Measure A in 2008 received 63 percent of the vote; Measure A in 2006 received 57 percent; Measure N in 1998 received 53 percent; and Measure B in 1989 came in just shy of 50 percent.