State Gas Mileage Tax?

A recent article in USA Today expressed the new development for Oregon drivers in that they won't be taxed on the amount of gas their cars burn but instead on the number of miles they drive. It would be a VMT tax, or vehicle miles traveled. Many people are curious if this new taxation will work, and if so, will we start seeing it implemented in other states around the country. Jamie Rall, a transportation specialist, commented on the new tax, "Per-mile charges are the most high-profile and discussed possible alternative to the gas tax. There's no question about it: States want to know if this is going to be a viable way to fund transportation into the future."

Oregon has introduced the new taxation to a preliminary group of 5,000 volunteer drivers. The state is hoping this will show the public and lawmakers the new alternative is fair and easy to implement while not needing crazy tracking devices to monitor car mileage traveled. This new program will be introduced in 2015 and will include two forms of tracking systems. The first option is a more traditional solution in which miles traveled is simply tracked by taping into the cars odometer. The other alternative is to be tracked via GPS. This will give an indication of how far a car traveled and where it traveled (people won't be charged for out of state or off road trips).

The state of Oregon is considering the fact that cars are now becoming more fuel efficient and how people with newer cars might shy away from the program. They are trying to find ways to give people with highly fuel efficient cars more incentive to buy into the program. It'll be interesting to see how successful the initial program of 5,000 volunteer drivers performs. I'm sure if it does well we will begin to see some other states following suite and so on.

via Wayne Essex http://wayneessex.net/state-gas-mileage-tax/