With the state short on transportation dollars and Congress trying to limit earmarks in federal highway bills, the extension of I-95 north and the east-west highway in any direction looks grim. If only Maine could get some other country to fund the roads here. Spain, say. Or Australia.

Sounds far-fetched, and those countries themselves wouldn’t build the highways. But, for instance, Statewide Mobility Partners, composed of the Australian company Maquarie and the Spanish company Cintra, might. It has already purchased the lease for Chicago’s Skyway for $1.8 billion and is being considered in a deal that would lease a 157-mile toll road in Indiana.

If the plan goes through, the company would operate the road for the next 75 years in exchange for $3.85 billion. The company maintains the road, collects tolls and the public gets improved transportation.

We don’t know whether this is a good idea generally, a good idea for Maine or under what conditions private developers would be interested in undertaking these projects. But privately built and operated highways ought to be studied by the state because there is no other apparent means for funding the construction of these proposed highways.

At the very least, asking industry to put a price on the tolls for these roads would tell the state a lot about their potential value.

Maine, of course, has an early version of a privatized highway overseer for the 100 miles of its turnpike. The debt for the Maine Turnpike Authority is privately held and the revenue from the tolls it charges pays for maintenance. Leasing a highway to a private company is another matter, but Maine would begin with both a little experience and the incentive of a $1.3 billion backlog of unfunded roadwork.

There are reasons to be doubtful about privatizing roads – for instance, it puts the cost only on users of particular portions of a highway, rather than spreading the cost more broadly. That could reinforce economic activity in places that already are doing well and stifle communities or regions with little activity. Labor contracts too could come into play.

The Indiana project is part of Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Major Moves, an infrastructure investment plan for that state, which he must address a $2.8 billion shortfall in its transportation budget over the next 10 years. On his Web site, Gov. Daniels points out that at least 18 other states are working on public-private partnerships and that the Federal Highway Administration is helping to promote them.

Maine might learn from Indiana’s experience or those of several other states pursuing this means of funding highways. The state’s gas tax can’t maintain the roads Maine now has; it would be difficult to imagine it paying a state share of a new major project. A look at private possibilities could be telling.