I cannot see any real benefit to taxing mileage over taxing by the gallon. I do see detriment. Taxing mileage instead of by the gallon does nothing to encourage better mileage. If the revenue from taxing per gallon at a specific rate doesn;t generate sufficient funds, that does not mean the taxation system should be changed, but rather that that tax rates and perhaps the revenue sources as a whole should be reviewed. Perhaps a lottery (for any state that doesn;t have one), perhaps a casino, perhaps some other form of user fee such as tolls. These areas and other alternative revenue sources all need to be considered above changing the tax structure IMHO.
Barkydog, "Unfortunately gas tax presents a greater burden the lower your income."
So what is your solution to this? Should we go back to gas stamps and make the rich pay more for their stamps than the poor. Not all taxes can be made progressive.
As long as I can remember there has always been a tax per gallon of gasoline, I’ve been driving since '64. I believe the tax was originally intended to build roads. Was it perhaps tied to the Eisenhower era when the Interstate Highway System was planned and building on it started?
What are gas taxes used for now? My guess is more that road maintenance and construction. Gas taxes should be for fixing older roads, upgrading older roads, and building new roads; period. If the gas tax rates currently don’t all go to roads, then that should change. Once tax rates are exclusively for roads and the revenue isn’t sufficient, then raise the tax rate.
I don’t see EV vehicles as an issue at this point. The new electric cars are light and simply do not cause any significant road damage. The benefits of EV on other areas, less pollution, more jobs to produce this new product, etc. means they can get a free pass on gas taxes for a few more years. When 30-40% of the fleet is electric cars then some way to tax them for road use can be figured out.
I agree Uncle T.
I think the concern now is that with gas mileage continuing to get better and a new CAFE requirement above 50mpg by 2024, revenuse will drop while roadway costs rise. I think it goes beyond just EVs. It goes to hybrids as well, and their market share is growing.
Completely with you @same and @jtsanders
The advantage I see to gas over milage are those vehicles that do the most damage to roads, more often then not use the most gas. Heavier vehicles are far and away in this group. Hybrids in light cars are a miniscule part of the equation and hybrids in intermediates less so. And guess what, when you pile more people and gear in these hybrids, they use more gas ! Electric cars will also be relatively light and given their zero polution for now, it’s well worth it. Eventually there may be some alternative tax structure that addresses this, but for now when their efficiency and numbers, it’s a non factor because of the weight difference. Again, Oregon, IMO, are backward thinking. Gee, I thought we wanted to encourage efficiency in a way that addressed who actually causes the most wear on our roads. Too much…too early. The roads are getting under funded because of the economy and people are driving less and using fewer gas guzzlers…wasn’t that the intent ? Now punishing the Prius owner is a step backwards. Just raise the gas tax if need be.
I also agree with Uncle Turbo. The tax on gas should be high enough to cover all road and bridge building and maintenance, even if that means raising the current rates. Improving the roads and bridges will bring more employment and more employment will provide the government with more income tax money and less welfare/unemployment outlays. Win win.
European countries use a combination of taxes. First the gas tax, which is very high; gas in England and France costs about $9 per gallon. In addition there is a horsepower and vehicle weight tax. In Holland, for instance the retail price of a loaded Jeep grand Cherokee (large engine) is about $90,000!
Add to that an annual road tax, which is low for a 4 cylinder econobox, but rises steeply with horsepower and weight. The annual licenmse fee in France for an 8 cylinder full size car is about $1500!, while a small compact 4 costs about $65 per year. These rules were first instituted to reduce oil imports, but they stuck, and there are virtually no large cars or 8 cylinder cars on the road in France. The cities don’t lend themselves to these behemoths anyway.
Most “luxury cars”, suc as E Class Mercedes, Lexus, Infinti, in Germany and England are company vehicles; the average middle class person cannot afford one.
The hefty annual tax on the large cars keeps them out of the discounted “previously owned” market in Europe and the Pacific also. Just imagine how few SUVs would be lined up at a “we tote the note” car lots if buyers faced paying $1,500 in annual taxes and $9 for gasoline. You couldn’t give a Suburban away if it had 100,000 miles.
Add to that an annual road tax, which is low for a 4 cylinder econobox, but rises steeply with horsepower and weight. The annual licenmse fee in France for an 8 cylinder full size car is about $1500!, while a small compact 4 costs about $65 per year.
I would favor that IF the tax only applied to new cars for their first 6 years. After 6 years when they enter the secondary market usually by people of limited income, the tax would drop to the basic road tax (minimum). I would also phase it in over a five year period to give manufacturers time to retool and redesign to meet the market shift.
The gradual introduction of such a tax would be necessary keith. But reducing the average size of vehicles on our roads would benefit us in many ways.
Taxing mileage is an utterly stupid idea. It’s the same as a gas tax for almost all vehicles (except electric) except that it lowers the gas tax per gallon for vehicles which get POOR mpg. Right now, with a gas tax, if you drive an SUV 10 miles, use 1 gallon, pay 40 cents of gas tax. Drive a Camry 10 miles, use 1/3 of a gallon and pay 1/3 of 40 cents. IE high mpg pay less tax PER MILE. Isn’t that what society WANTS?
Tax them on the miles driven and (ie 2 cents per mile) and the SUV pays an equivalent 20 cents per gallon and the Camry 60 cents per gallon. So you’ve shifted the incentives toward driving LOW mpg vehicles. Brilliant. Does this make sense? How about you input your vehicle info at the gas pump and it will adjust your gas tax DOWN if you drive a LOW MPG vehicle? That’s exactly what is being proposed.
Plus you need an expensive way to actually track the miles driven. Seems utterly ludicrous.
Just raise the gas tax if you need more money. Easy to administer, understand, correct incentives, etc. etc.
Working people get taxed, making their life more difficult. This is a punishment tax for the majority of people who can least afford a new tax just to drive to work
Increase the gasoline tax rather than a mileage tax. A straight mileage tax penalizes drivers of fuel efficient cars as much as those that drive large SUVs. While we’re at it, expand the gas guzzler tax to new trucks. It could be scaled differently than cars are, but anyone driving a big SUV or even an inefficient minivan should pay the guzzler tax. And diesels, too.
I say the government should just tax gasoline more.
Good points #kenberthiaume, however, both vehicles use the highways to the same amount. Who is going to pay for road maintenance when we become more efficient?
Tolls. :-()
“I say the government should just tax gasoline more”
I’d have to agree with that. I for one am just really getting tired of the social engineering and graduated everything. Just keep it simple and quit trying to control behavior.
I know this probaly wont work,but make the tax increase with vehicle weight,they sort of do this with large trucks anyway,eg; a econobox say 2 cents a mile,an suv (large)5 cents a mile,if its going to happen make it fair,come to think of it this seems to be a conservative plot-Kevin
"Who is going to pay for road maintenance when we become more efficient? "
Simple, just increase the gas tax to cover increased efficiency. It’s not like the tax has to go up a huge amount right now to cover road costs, something like $0.20/gallon. If it has to increase a nickel a year after that, fine.
And having the per-mile fee track vehicle size: surprise, it’s JUST LIKE THE GAS TAX! Why invent another bureaucracy to do something we already do, but more easily and less intrusively?
And no, it’s not a ‘conservative plot’, it’s a bureaucrat’s plot: some folks who like big government are loving it.
Gas taxes in the US are some of the lowest in the industrialized world. The tax at 20 cents? is about $4 per gallon MORE in Europe. Even Norway, which is an oil exporting country with a very high living standard, has expensive gas. Tom and Ray’s original proposal a few years back to add 50 cents a gallon to US gas prices still makes a lot of sense.
All taxes raised will be used for something that other taxes don’t need to cover.The AAA argues that gas taxes should only be enough to keep the roads and bridges in shape. That’s very short-sighted; taxes should at least cover infrastructure and highway law enforcement, but be high enough to influence behavior and consumption. The US imports still over 50% of its oil; and a lot of cars, a big draw on the balance of payments, putting it in the red for many years to come.
Countries that have no oil and no car industry, such as Denmark, put a very high cost on car ownership in order to preserve their balance of payments. The US traditionally had both a car industry (few imports) as well as lots of oil. That’s what got us into that addictive position. Those days are gone now.
Texas,its all about control,but vehicles that harm the road less should pay less.Eg; a Mack truck that will gross 70,000# and get 6-7 mpg will harm the road a heck of lot more then a 3500# VW Diesel that gets 35 mpg I would say the truck will probaly wear the road 20 times faster then the little low ground pressure VW that gets 5X-6X the fuel mileage,this is arbitrary but the vehicle that does 5% the damage should pay 5% rather then 20% as the larger vehicle,there are ways to address the discrepencies in the spirit of fairness(I know that that trucks pay hideous registration fees now-BTW some 18 wheelers claim about 11 mpg-80K @ 11 MPG =WOW!-Kevin