Is it even worth asking anymore whether candidates for office will raise taxes?

Much to no one’s surprise, all five declared candidates for Maine governor have come out against raising taxes, according to a recent Associated Press poll.

Can you even recall the last time a candidate for office favored a tax hike?

Maybe we should just stipulate from the start that everyone is in favor of more jobs, better jobs, less waste and NO NEW TAXES!

By this point, it’s safe to assume that anyone running on a higher-taxes platform was eliminated at the petition-passing stage of the race.

The Baldacci administration and the last Legislature pretty much stuck by their pledge of not raising any “broad-based” taxes.

They did it, however, by increasing a host of fees and cutting millions they formerly shared with school districts and municipal governments, many of which then did what the state wouldn’t — raised taxes.

“Now is not the time,” was a popular response among the candidates for Maine governor, which seems to imply that there will someday be a good time to raise taxes.

Maybe when we all have those better jobs.

Independent candidate Kevin Scott was the clearest: “Emphatically, NO,” he told the AP.

Fellow independent Eliot Cutler seemed to have taken the Baldacci pledge to heart, carving out a distinction between taxes and broad-based taxes.

Many pledged to conduct a top-to-bottom review of state government operations to detect “waste, fraud and abuse,” as Republican Paul LePage put it. Everyone was in favor of maximizing savings and getting spending under control.

But we fear that in at least one realm, the winning candidate will find the no-tax pledge tough to keep.

Maine has not increased its gasoline tax since 1999. Revenue from the tax, meanwhile, has dropped due to the recession and Mainers driving more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Meanwhile, an annual survey of the nation’s road and bridge conditions, released last week, found that Maine has dropped from 15th in the U.S. in 2000 to 32nd for all roads.

But when it comes to just rural roads, we are far worse: 47th in the U.S.

All of which means the Maine Turnpike and I-295 are in great shape while the rest of the roads will rattle your teeth.

Maine’s highway repair and construction budget is facing a projected shortfall of $720 million in 2011 and 2012.

Democratic candidate Libby Mitchell called for “robust” bonding to close the gap. LePage, meanwhile, pointed to a “bloated transportation bureaucracy” as the problem.

Cutler seemed the most realistic: “I am not ready to call for an increase in the gas tax, but it would be irresponsible and disingenuous not to consider one, given the magnitude of the problem we face.”

He’s right. It’s a big problem.

The next governor and Legislature will soon face a big choice: Raise the tax or condemn Maine’s drivers to the worst rural roads in the country.