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
"Are people really this stupid to ask for this crap?"
Yes. Every one of you guys that protests a hike in the gas tax brings this reality that much closer.
The money for roads will be raised, somehow, and if you do not allow the gas tax to provide that money, you WILL get big brother in your cars.
Now, deal with that, please.
Keep it up Oregon, we need more red states.
"BUT THEY DON'T SEEM TO LISTEN.
Why the heck do you Oregonians keep electing them?"
Great question. I hope someone else can give a better answer than I. Here it goes:
The emergence of Republican legislators who act as democrats when elected appears to be a rather recent plague. There don't appear to be alot of choices in candidates that would be electable. A third party candidate run would send a message, which would be "hey let's split the vote and have every republican and 3rd party candidate lose to the democrats."
It's frustrating.
You would be amazed at how many jackboot fetishists think owning and driving your own car is a privilege. You car, your gun, your child, your house. They are your's only as long as the JBTs think you are staying in line.
Yup. They'll keep the existing tax in place to bilk bill the tourists who don't have Oregon Compliant cars.
Of course native Oregonians will be stuck with cheerfully pay both...
There truly is NO WHERE to go but further down the slope of Socialism. Our nation's apathy will eventually make all of us DEPENDENT and put us all into total bondage!!
Your post is a load of crap. Money is fungible. There is moeny for roads without governemnt putting GPS systems in cars. This has nothing to do with a gas tax and everything to do with the erosion of liberty and freedom.
No new taxes ~ cut taxes!
Drill for oil and gas, build more oil refineries, build more power plants, including nuclear!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Hey, what's next. Maybe a chip installed in all citizens to tax the air we breath. How about this chip would tax us every time we ate at a fast food place. You know, they would install in all fast food places a monitor device that would tricker the chip in you and tax tax tax tax. Hell, no stopping this liberal crap. Oh, I forgot no more red light camera. Will be replaced with same type of trigger on all red lights, ah, gotcha. Whoops forgot the stop signs. Maybe this trigger will register your body if it didn't come to a complete stop, a 250 fine. Shi@, Shi@, Shi@
Oregon is loaded with corruption in government, that is where all the money is going. There is no need to raise any taxes or create new ones. Just cut the corruption and use tax dollars wisely. The last figures I heard on the light rail actual cost per rider is $65, tax payer subsidized. Oregon governments are tripping over each other trying to spend money on failed transportation ideas. No new taxes or tax schemes!
Or during a "tax emergency" when the legislature just decides it wants to spend more money than they have coming in.
"There is no need to raise any taxes or create new ones."
I don't know the details for Oregon, but boy here in Texas our governor just latched on to tolls like they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. So now we have commuters be threatened with having to pay thousands of dollars per year in tolls, while our psycho governor runs around campaigning that he never raised taxes. (instead he applied "target user fees").
I plan to leave Texas, in large part because of this, and I'd really would rather not see it spread like cancer to the rest of the country.
The same people who want to monitor motorists' movements are opposed to the FBI monitoring mosque activities.
Personally, I think taxpayers, given the high gasoline prices and ever increasing state & fed gas taxes associated with purchasing a gallon of gas, should be allowed to deduct mileage like $.30 per mile from their state & federal income taxes. January 1 note the speedometer mileage and take note December 31 of each year. If the vehicle is sold or wrecked during the year, a taxpayer should be allowed to estimate the mileage.
"corruption in government"
Crrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.................SNAP! Crrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee................SNAP! That feels better. Head on straight now.
Yes, I never understood why folks put up with paying tax on money spent on paying tax?
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