State surpluses or toll roads might be used to fill a nearly $4 billion road work shortfall, but increases in gasoline taxes or driver's license fees won't, Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons said Tuesday.

Gibbons, in Las Vegas to introduce Susan Martinovich as the state's new transportation director, endorsed the idea of raiding the state's projected budget surplus of nearly $500 million to pay for pressing road projects. He did not offer a specific amount he'd use for road work.

"Using the one-shot monies of the surplus for transportation infrastructure makes eminent sense," Gibbons said. "That's where we should start looking."

But the governor-elect flatly rejected three fundamental recommendations of a task force assembled by outgoing Gov. Kenny Guinn: allowing the state gasoline tax to grow by up to 4.5 percent annually to keep pace with inflation; doubling the state's driver's license fee to $20, from $10; and boosting a number of other driving-related taxes and fees.

"The one thing I've made very clear is the fact I can't accept increasing gasoline taxes on the public. There's got to be other, creative ways," Gibbons said. "We are not going to increase taxes and fees to the people of the state of Nevada. That's a campaign promise, and I plan to stick to it."

The Guinn plan, which came after a year of study, was aimed at filling a $3.8 billion shortfall the state is facing in an $11 billion plan for 10 major road projects deemed necessary through 2015 to avoid gridlock on major valley highways.

That plan suggested using $170 million of the surplus on road work.

Gibbons said he'd consider making up the shortfall with toll roads "only if I find there's support among the public and the communities and local governments."

He wants to explore the possibility of "public-private partnerships" to enable road construction and improvement, Gibbons said. In some other states, governments have allowed the private sector to open toll roads, in exchange for franchise fees paid to local or state government.

Using bond sales to underwrite highway initiatives is another possibility that should be looked at, Gibbons said.

The governor-elect has assembled his own transportation working group, consisting of Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, who ran for governor in the Democratic primary this year, and state Assemblyman-elect Ty Cobb, R-Reno, to come up with recommendations on how to fully fill the funding gap. The duo is expected to make recommendations in the coming months, Gibbons said.

Gibbons' rejection of the Guinn plan comes just days after Guinn and the Nevada Transportation Board informally endorsed the plan, which Gibbons is under no obligation to follow.

The projects in need of funding include the widening of Interstate 15 north and south of downtown Las Vegas; widening U.S. Highway 95 between Las Vegas and Henderson and in the far northwest Las Vegas Valley; a U.S. Highway 93 bypass around Boulder City; and building new Las Vegas Beltway interchanges at I-15, U.S. 95 and Summerlin Parkway.

Other projects include improvements to Interstate 80, U.S. Highway 395 and the Pyramid Highway in Northern Nevada

The governor-elect's reticence to raise taxes mirrors the findings of a pair of opinion polls.

A Review-Journal poll last year that found 79 percent of Clark County residents opposed a nickel-a-gallon gasoline tax increase, even if it supported road construction.

And a recent nationwide survey by AAA found 71 percent of drivers believe more money is needed to improve the nation's transportation system, but only 21 percent favored increasing the gasoline tax and 15 percent backed increases in sales, income or property taxes.

The survey found 52 percent might consider some sort of toll options to help raise money for road work, with 39 percent supporting toll roads for new roads and highways.