North Carolina and Washoe County, Nev., have enacted laws to increase fuel taxes to save revenue
, according to the American Trucking Associations' State Laws Newsletter.

Even though North Carolina's fuel tax was expected to fall by 2 cents a gallon, the state has set the minimum rate at 29.9 cents per gallon, the current level. The state's law calls for a basic fuel tax of 17.5 cents, plus a variable component set every six months at 7 percent of the average wholesale price of fuel. The state will most likely raise the rate to 30.4 cents per gallon by January.

Washoe County in Nevada also voted for a higher fuel tax starting Jan. 1, 2010. The county will index county and federal gasoline taxes on a rolling 10-year average of the changes in the Producer Price Index in counties whose population is 100,000 or more but less than 400,000, according to the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. However, the fuel tax can be avoided by carriers that buy fuel in another county, as the law does not apply under the International Fuel Tax Agreement, according to the ATA's newsletter.