Posted on 05/21/2005 8:56:17 AM PDT by agitator
Oregon tests novel mileage tax
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The program is the first step in a long-term plan to replace the state's gasoline tax, which pays for about 40 percent of Oregon 's road projects. As in many states, Oregon officials are worried gas tax revenues won’t be able to keep up with the rising costs of road building, especially with improved mileage from both traditional and hybrid cards.
Driver advocates and environmentalists said they will be watching the new program to make sure that it charges drivers fairly and that it does not give consumers an excuse to keep driving gas-guzzling cars.
Testing will start in September when the state transportation department plans to equip 20 privately owned cars with electronic odometers to record their mileage at gas stations. When drivers fill up, specially equipped gas pumps will read the mileage and charge 1.2 cents for every mile driven instead of the state's tax of 24 cents per gallon of gas.
The cars also will have Global Positioning Systems (GPS) so drivers will not be charged for driving outside state borders -- the tax is only meant to be applied for use of Oregon roads. Tracking cars' locations also could allow extra fees for traveling in congested traffic areas or during rush hours. Drivers also could be charged less if their car is more fuel-efficient, said James Whitty, manager of the Oregon Department of Transportation division that is overseeing the project.
A bigger, year-long test of 280 cars is scheduled to start in March 2006. After that, the state transportation department will make recommendations to the Legislature on whether to phase in the new-fangled tax statewide, possibly over 20 years to ease privacy concerns and spread out the costs of the new technology.
Elliott Eki, spokesman for the Oregon AAA, said the state absolutely needs to find a new source of money to build roads and bridges. But charging drivers more for driving in congested areas could force more people to use neighborhood streets to avoid extra fees.
Chris Hagerbaumer, a transportation specialist with the nonprofit Oregon Environmental Council, said the state should impose such a new tax slowly. "The issue is, if we make a flat switch, we would lose the incentives for people to purchase fuel-efficient cars," she said.
The mileage tax was the main recommendation of a 2001 state task force studying new ways to pay for road projects, which rely heavily on gasoline taxes. Those fees lost much of their purchasing power as the inflation of the 1970s and 1980s increased the costs of road projects. At the same time, carmakers began to slowly improve fuel efficiency, so that drivers were, in effect, paying less to use the roads, the task force found.
Oregon raised its gas taxes six times from 1981 to 1991 to keep highway funds flush, but politicians have been unable to muster the political will for any increases since then.
In the next decade, gas tax revenues in Oregon are projected to level off, then permanently decline as rising gas prices push consumers to drive less or buy more efficient hybrid electric or other alternatively fueled cars.
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) has said his state will become the 10th to adopt more stringent auto pollution standards than the federal government, standards likely to be achieved through greater fuel efficiency.
The number of hybrid vehicles in Oregon grew by 103 percent from 2003 to 2004, the second-highest percentage increase in the nation after New Jersey, according to R.L. Polk & Co., an automotive data-collection firm. The number of hybrids increased across the nation by 81 percent over the same period, the analysts found.
Send your comments on this story to: letters@stateline.org. Selected reader feedback will be posted in the Letters to the editor section.
Contact Eric Kelderman at: ekelderman@stateline.org
By the way, NY was taxing fuel use long before 1919 and registering your car was an OPTIONAL and ALTERNATE method of paying motor fuel use tax. The same non-constitutional scam they use to rape you for the alleged "privilege" to drive is but a microcosm of how they have taken a 3 branch republic and converted it into a 1 branch tyranny but nobody wants to hear it. I don't know why I bother.
Belive that, and I'll tell you another one! Aren't we still paying a telephone tax that dates back to the Spanish-American War? Once created, a tax is forever.
Where's the incentive for people to buy eco-friendly cars when they get charged 1.2 cents whether they're driving a Prius or a Hummer? Liberals are truly stupid.
We keep telling the beaurocrats and the state legislature
"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO"
when it comes to "enhancing state revenue" by new taxes, raised taxes, new fees, etc.
BUT THEY DON'T SEEM TO LISTEN.
I am so damned sick of the whimpy Oregon "Republican" (in name only) legislators. Grow a pair, boys and girls!!! And knock off the crap!!!
Oregon is on the way to becoming the least business-friendly, and most over-taxed state in the USA. Which sucks, because wages in Oregon are very poor.
Muleteam1
This is just so wrong on so many levels.
I was going to say gas tank size and frequency of fill up, but another thing crossed my mind.
If I drive a 'gas guzzler' with a 20 gallon tank, that means I can't drive as far as a Prius or any other 'economy car'with a smaller tank (10 to 13 gallon).
And since the tax is going to be based on 'mileage', would the economy cars pay more?
I seems to me that if I can go 200 miles on a tank and the economy cars can go 400 miles on a tank, then that is what would happen.
IMO
This is a joke, right? Do people actually believe that this tax will go away?
The left hates autos for the same reason they deride cowboys, because they are free agents, even free spirits, moving about the world without by your leave and without real control by leftists. When people move about in public transportation they are much easier managed. It is not a question of the environment but of the implacable lust of the left to control every proton on earth that really motivates these sorts of laws. If we had perpetual motion devices installed in cars which created no pollution, the left would seek to regulate them out of existence, although upon a different pretext.
Are people really this stupid to ask for this crap?
With no possible hopes of going up as the population vacates the immediate area.
I'm hard pressed to feel pity for Oregonians, since I saw that sign entering Oregon from California many years ago that stated something to the effect of ...
"Welcome to Oregon. Visit, but don't stay."
On the other hand it's articles like this that make me want to round up politicians and smuggle them into Red China, selling them as slaves.
Anyone interested in a tax free buisiness adventure, contact me ...
It depends on whether you want to drive on roads or not drive at all. We have to pay for the upkeep and replacement and building new roads and bridges for our highway infrastructure.
Why the heck do you Oregonians keep electing them?
So this will work with "specially equipped gas pumps" paid for by whom? What exactly is the profit incentive for gas stations to add a major capital improvement? Or is the state planning on running the gas stations, too?
Oregon Ping
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Oregon began testing this concept decades ago on big commercial trucks. I know because once upon a time, a long time ago, I was an independent trucker. I stayed out of Oregon as much as possible because of their highest in the nation road use tax.
This cost Oregon tax payers dearly in lost business and higher shipping costs as Oregon taxes on commercial vehicles were not just higher than other states by a little, but by huge margin.
Apparently, Oregon politicians are so happy with what they wrought on commercial vehicles they want to do it to everybody.
That is why they will keep the gas tax in addition to the mileage tax. The hybrid owners will start complaining about being taxed the same as the SUV's even though they are supporting "the greater good" by "protecting the environment". It will be called unfair.
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