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WASHINGTON — U.S. interstate highways are in need of rebuilding and repair, but the use of tolls as a funding source is less efficient than raising the federal fuel tax, said Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations.

In a spirited debate over the issue of tolling here on Jan. 10, Graves and Patrick Jones, CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, agreed the U.S. interstate highway system has suffered from neglect in recent years because of funding challenges.

And that was pretty much where the agreement ended.

“To me, tolls are like a travel tax on steroids,” Graves said. Instead, he said, the fuel tax is simple, fair and equitable.

Jones said that without a sustained investment, the nation’s interstates would turn into a “heap of rubble.”

“Federal funding to support surface transportation is inadequate and unsustainable,” Jones said. “In light of these circumstances, Congress should not interfere with state efforts to use tolls on the interstate system.”

However, Graves said he wasn’t yet ready to give up on the notion of raising the federal fuel tax.

But because the tax has not been adjusted since 1993, tolling is a topic fresh on truckers’ minds. Plans are advancing for pilot projects to toll existing interstates in such states as Virginia, Missouri and North Carolina.

Joshua Schank, president of Eno Transportation Foundation, which hosted the event, said tolling could be debated on the Senate floor as members discuss transportation funding legislation.

“With a growing recognition about the lack of revenues for surface transportation investment, there’s a greater awareness and interest in private investment and the revenues that tolling could bring,” Schank said.

Graves said he wants to preserve the federal tolling ban.

“We are strongly in favor of encouraging the federal government to continue its role in a strong federal-guided program and the funding to back it up,” Graves said. The alternative of tolling is not as efficient or as effective a way to fund highway improvements as the federal fuel tax, he said.

Toll agencies have a “history of questionable rate-setting and spending practices” and “lack accountability and transparency at both the political and operational levels,” Graves said.

Tolling authorities also have a tendency to overstate projected revenues and traffic loads, and tolls generally reduce trucking productivity, and increase pollution because of slowdowns at collection gates, Graves said.

Jones said that he does not understand why Congress won’t raise the fuel tax, but the reality is that it won’t.

“We should give the states the tool that they desperately want to have to implement tolls on interstate highways within their own borders,” Jones said.

“If we were to take the interstate highway system and put it up for sale in the newspaper the way you would put a house for sale, the first line would read ‘fixer-upper,’ ” Jones said.

But Graves noted that state transportation officials just want federal funding for improving their transportation infrastructure — and don’t necessarily want to do so by imposing tolls.

“What the states want is money, and they’ll take it in any form or fashion they can get it,” Graves said. “So let’s not kid ourselves. If the federal government found a way to come up with well-funded federal programs, the states would walk away from other options lickety-split.”

Graves said that another problem with toll roads is that truckers often try to avoid them as a way to cut costs.

He suggested that raising the fuel tax would be far cheaper in the long run.

For example, he said a trucker who takes the 236-mile interstate stretch between Oklahoma’s southern border and Kansas City, Kan., would pay $66.25 if the interstate was tolled.

That would be equivalent to a 17-cent increase in the fuel tax, Graves noted.

“So there might be some who would say, ‘Why don’t we just operate that road and increase fuel taxes 5 cents or 10 cents and save us a little money?’ ” Graves asked.