Governor Patrick’s administration has some good, and not so good, ideas on how to improve Massachusetts’s transportation system.

One good idea is to get rid of the sometimes financially out of control and patronage-rich Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which has had the dubious pleasure of having the Big Dig project under its wing. Another is to make Massport shoulder more of the cost of the Big Dig because Logan Airport, the Port of Boston and indeed all of eastern Massachusetts particularly benefit from the huge project. Only fair.

Still, we remain concerned about too much power remaining with any quasi-independent state authority such as Massport. The more that the state’s highway needs can be addressed in a coherent and comprehensive way and less in the balkanized way they have been addressed the better. The argument that the structure of these separate transportation authorities somehow shelters the state from financial liabilities doesn’t wash. In the end, the taxpayers are on the hook.

Perhaps everything should be under the direct control of the state Highway Department.

In any event, more revenue will be needed to maintain the state’s transportation infrastructure. That means higher tolls and probably higher gasoline taxes.

The latter levy is 7.5 cents below the national average. It should be increased to help pay for infrastructure and for mass transit.

And improving mass transit helps maintain infrastructure by reducing wear and tear on highways and bridges. It’s only fair that those who use the roads pay more of their ever-rising costs.

If higher tolls and gasoline taxes lead more people to use mass transportation and to live in such a way as to discourage the sprawl development spawned by cheap gasoline, the environment and the economy of the region will benefit.