(Indianapolis, Ind.) - A tax on Indiana license plates could help fund road maintenance and construction.

State Senator Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville) is floating the idea of a $20 to $50 fee on new license plates.

The Republican senator told the Indiana Business Journal that such a tax could raise as much as $300 million a year to help the Indiana Department of Transportation avoid a forecasted budget shortfall of $200 million.

"Our road infrastructure is more critically important to us than it ever was," Kenley said in the report. "Somehow this needs to become a renewed major initiative like Major Moves was for (Indiana Governor) Mitch (Daniels)."

Major Moves was a project championed by Daniels to lease the Indiana Toll Road for $3.8 billion. The money gained was used for road projects throughout the state, but those funds will be fully committed by the end of 2013, the IBJ reported.

Kenley said the funds could go towards new projects like widening Interstates 65 and 70 and furthering the idea of a new interstate bypass loop around Indianapolis.