Please Read & Discuss

[hvw]

Some states are considering taxing mileage rather than gasoline, mostly because road maintenance is paid for by fuel taxes, because fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles threaten the maintenance budget.

Tell me your thoughts?

Comments

[smjayman]

Pitchforks and torches in D.C.?

[hvw]

Don't suppose you'd care to articulate your thoughts in any more depth?

[smjayman]

Well my first thought was open revolt. But then I remembered that we're already frogs in a very hot pot, so maybe some grumbling? I dunno. I absolutely do not see this as popular. The one thing I can think of would be if they completely removed the federal gas tax on gasoline (which will never happen) and replace it with a mileage tax. Then I would be OK with the deal. Otherwise, it is simply heaping a use tax on top of a consumption tax. (Talk about your double jeopardy!) I imagine that depending on the way they tracked it, there'd be a lot of people evading that tax. (Disabling the tracking device, leaving it at home, modifying the actual # of miles, etc.)

[wand_r]

Well, it does the job of taxing the folks who are most using the resource (the roads) and (in theory) encouraging less driving. However, at this point I can't imagine that the quantity of fuel efficient vehicles out there is large enough to be causing a huge decrease in revenue fuel tax revenue. My guess is that lower revenues are due to lessened driving by folks who are watching their spending. Taxing mileage will not do much of anything to encourage folks to drive more and in areas without sufficient mass transit options will provide an added hardship to an already over-extended consumer

[hvw]

What I find interesting about this is that it's a replacement.... the usual thing would just be to add an additional tax layer on somehow

[wand_r]

I think we're getting all chicken/egg here... Mass transit carries a stigma, in most parts of the country (read, sub-urban parts or cities to which the following applies) because mass transit SUCKS in most parts of this country. So, the only folks who will use a seriously flawed service are the ones who can't afford to do otherwise (or are hardcore enough in their belief system to do it out of spite). And there are entire regions with no mass transit options at all, they have no choice

[theantichrist]

Road usage is clearly better measured by how many miles people actually travel on said roads than arbitrarily taxing based on the sliding scale of gasoline sales. So it sounds like a good move to me, OTOH I'm generally pro-taxes so I suppose I should mention that. ;)