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Gas taxes don't cover road upkeep
A California traffic jam
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Renita Jablonski: How about paying taxes for transportation projects based on how many miles you drive? A bi-partisan panel releases findings today of a two-year study into ways to make up for highway funding shortfalls. This study comes from The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission. Now that's a long name. Right now, gas taxes pay for roads and bridges, but as Sarah Gardner reports, experts say it's not enough.
Sarah Gardner: The commission says the U.S. is spending only a third of what's necessary to keep up our roads. Gas taxes, it says, aren't a good way to fund them, especially now that cars are getting more fuel efficient.
Commissioner Geoffrey Yarema says taxing individual drivers based on their mileage makes more sense.
Geoffrey Yarema: The gas tax was a reasonable proxy for use. It isn't any longer. So this is the next evolution of a user pays concept for transportation.
Oregon has already piloted this idea. It's commonly called a VMT tax -- vehicle miles traveled. Every car would have a GPS-like mileage counter in it to track how far the driver's gone and possibly where.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood floated the idea this month, but the White House immediately rejected it. The commission will also recommend states consider more toll roads and congestion pricing where people pay a premium to drive during rush hour.
I'm Sarah Gardner for Marketplace.
LaHood has it half right. I think if you taxed by miles driven, and gross vehicle weight, the tax on the average american wouldn't be that bad. Any Engineer can tell you that the Interstate Highway System (bridges especially) was never designed to carry the number and size/weight of trucks that it does today. It's not cars that are wearing it out...It's trucks. Take all the taxes related to highway construction, roll them together, and charge by mileage/weight. Then everyone pays their fair share. Sort of a "pay by the drink" approach.
If gas taxes are no longer a "reasonable proxy" for road usage because cars are becoming more efficient, why not simply raise the gas tax? That seems infinitely preferable to any solution that involves the installation of government tracking devices in law-abiding citizens' cars. This idea is completely unacceptable from a civil liberties standpoint.
