I as a “heavy user” (200-300 miles per day) already pay a lot more in gas tax than you do for the “services” I use on the roadways. I pay a gas tax at the pump, a registration tax for my plates, a sales tax for parts and repairs, a wheel-age tax to the county I live in and a income tax on what profit I make.
Go ask a trucking company how much they pay in road tax. it’s staggering. Part of the reason diesel is so much more than gas is the tax on the gallon. The federal tax is 25 cents. State taxes can be just as high. Most OTR trucks are lucky to go 6 miles on 1 gallon of fuel. Then there is IFTA to make sure every state the truck goes through gets it’s “fair share” of the road tax. Truckers can not avoid the high fuel tax states.
my problem with a “per mile” tax is that the current per gallon gas tax will NEVER GO AWAY. And if you think it will your fooling yourself. Since this tax will be on top of the other taxes I will simply pass this extra tax on to my customers who will in turn pass it on to you. Trucking companies will do likewise.
Now, if you want to tax electric cars because they use no fuel I might be for that.
What's that?