Posted on 10/05/2010 11:01:36 AM PDT by Willie Green
A tax on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) was shot down last year by President Obama. But a new study by respected transportation experts – and a successful pilot program in Oregon – should revive the idea.
As more Americans buy hybrid or electric cars, drivers in traditional gas-only vehicles are bound to start asking: Why should I still be paying more in fuel taxes? Don’t we all use the highways?
Indeed, the gas tax is quickly becoming an unjust way to finance the costs of roads and bridges. All vehicles, whether they be a Hummer or a Prius, use the same infrastructure, which needs to be built and maintained regardless of a car’s fuel type.
There is an alternative, one that is fair, already proven, and, based on a new study by some 80 experts, the best way to start financing surface transportation.
It is a pay-as-you-go fee system based simply on distance, or a tax on “vehicle miles traveled” (VMT). The idea is the centerpiece recommendation of the study, released Monday, called “Well Within Reach: America’s New Transportation Agenda.” The report is based on a recent three-day conference of experts at the University of Virginia.
Oregon already tested a VMT system in 2006-07, using 299 volunteer motorists. The pilot program equipped their vehicles with devices that allowed gas stations to track their mileage during each fill-up. More than 90 percent of the participants said they would agree to use it in lieu of the gas tax, and the state’s governor is now seeking $10 million to expand the program.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
His goal is to be able to say that he never met a tax he didn’t HIKE!
His goal is to be able to say that he never met a tax he didn’t HIKE!
200 working days. I don’t drive to work or even go to work on Sat, Sun, holidays, etc...
Bob had an erection lasting more than four hours and failed to call his doctor. Alas, poor Bob.
lol
You are so getting a noogie for that one!!!
As soon as you get better, and I can run away a bit faster...hehehe
You got trains on tha brain muh man...Pittsburgh has trains right???
Yeah, right. I'm sure you get compliments like this all the time here on FR.
Time will tell with the new book, but I wouldn't be making bets against its veracity. Serious people have started to notice.
Tax mobility.
hmmm..
just like obama proping up property “values” to keep property taxes higher.
The point is that a 4,000 lbs electric vehicle pays no gas tax but puts just as much wear and tear on the roads as a 4,000 lbs F250.
It is not unreasonable to base road use fees on weight + mileage. In the past, the gas tax worked as a fair approximation, but with hybrids and all-electric vehicles that buy little or no gas, the existing fuel taxes don’t work anymore. The fuel taxes are effectively another subsidy for high-mileage vehicles at the expense of similar weight low mileage vehicles. Some relatively light sports cars are paying as much in fuel taxes as that F350 toying a boat trailer because their mpg sucks.
Doing it the way the article talks about with GPS calculating how far you’ve driven and paying periodically, yes it would be intrusive. But why do it that way ? Why not simply pay with your annual car registration renewal ? When you get the renewal bill, all it needs to know is the current mileage of the vehicle. With that and the VIN, it would be easy to calculate a true “wear and tear” fee based on the vehicle weight and the miles traveled in the previous year. Nobody needs to know where you’ve been, just how many miles you drove.
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