A gas tax hike  Ali T Winston By Ali T Winston  I was surprised
to find myself agreeing with much of Paul Mulshine's Jan. 17
column. He noted how Europeans drive cars that are very fuel
efficient compared with typical U.S. cars. Europeans drive
smaller cars because gas prices are much higher there due to
high taxes. Europeans pay about $7 to $8 a gallon. Gov. Jon
Corzine wants to dramatically raise tolls but won't consider
raising gas taxes. Mulshine suggested raising the gas tax to
reduce toll increases. This makes sense. In New Jersey, we pay
about 42 cents a gallon in state and federal taxes, while in
Pennsylvania and New York, the tax is about 63 cents a gallon.
We could raise our tax by 21 cents to the level of these
neighboring states. This would provide about $1 billion more a
year to rebuild roads and bridges and support mass transit. The
money would reduce the need for dramatically higher tolls.
Higher gas prices would encourage people to buy more fuel-
efficient cars. Higher tolls would only encourag