Raging Debate on Vehicle Mileage Tax – A Media Roundup – April 30, 2009

April 30, 2009 at 12:36 pm

Mileage-based tax expensive idea – HaroldNet ..I see that a congressional committee wants to put a mileage-based tax on cars and trucks. This would involve installation of expensive GPS devices in every 

Our view: Leave miles-traveled tax at the roadsideDuluth News Tribune – ‎Late last week in Washington, US Rep. Jim Oberstar touted spending half a trillion dollars to solve the nation’s transportation woes. 

Mileage Tax Discussion in Congress Helicopter Association International – ‎House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar said he will push for a mileage-based tax on cars and trucks to pay for highway programs. 

Mileage-Based Tax Not the Answer to Our Nation’s Infrastructure Needs Americans for Tax Reform – ‎By the Numbers: WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) issued the following response to Rep. James Oberstar’s (D-Minn) call for a 

More Congress Critters Want To Track And Tax Your Driving Habits Techdirt – ‎For years, various state politicians have pushed the idea of a “mileage tax” for driving, and it’s never made much sense at all. Yet, just a few months ago, 

Mileage Tax Is Alive and Well and Living in Congress

April 28, 2009 at 11:50 pm

(Source: The Infrastructurist)

Just two months ago, the idea of taxing motorists on the basis of how many miles they drive seemed to be dead as a doornail. After being floated by the new transportation secretary as a way to fund our highways, his boss–the guy everyone calls “Mr President”–shot it down remorselessly.

Usually, when a Mr President shoots something down, it stays dead. [Insert own Dick Cheney hunting joke here.] But not in this case. Today, James Oberstar, the head of the House transportation committee, said he wants a mileage tax. And not only does he want one, he wants it to happen in as little as two years — not the decade or more that many advocates have been talking about.

The Associated Press reports:

Oberstar said he believes the technology exists to implement a mileage tax. He said he sees no point in waiting years for the results of pilot programs since such a tax system is inevitable as federal gasoline tax revenues decline.

“Why do we need a pilot program? Why don’t we just phase it in?” said Oberstar, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman. Oberstar is drafting a six-year transportation bill to fund highway and transit programs that is expected to total around a half trillion dollars.

Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., […] said public acceptance, not technology, is the main obstacle to a mileage-based tax. […]

Oberstar shrugged off that concern.

“I’m at a point of impatience with more studies,” Oberstar said. He suggested that Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the highways and transit subcommittee, set up a meeting of transportation experts and members of Congress to figure out how it could be done.

The tax would entail equipping vehicles with GPS technology to determine how many miles a car has been driven and whether on interstate highways or secondary roads. The devices would also calculate the amount of tax owed.

Gas tax revenues — the primary source of federal funding for highway programs — have dropped dramatically in the last two years, first because gas prices were high and later because of the economic downturn. They are forecast to continue going down as drivers switch to fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles.

Click here to read the entire article.

USDOT Publishes Report on Key Transportation Indicators for March 2009

April 13, 2009 at 11:21 am

(Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation)

This report is intended to provide timely, easily accessible information for the transportation community. It was developed by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and is updated on a regular basis on the BTS website.

The indicators fall under two broad categories: those that provide context about the economy and society in which transportation functions, and those that convey information about an aspect of transportation. To the extent possible, these latter indicators are transportation-wide in scope; however, some apply to only part of the transportation system. Reference tables at the beginning of the document provide key statistics about U.S. social and economic characteristics, and about the extent of the transportation system.

For indicators that are highly seasonal, the current value of that indicator is compared to the same time period in the previous year (e.g., April 2001 compared to April 2000). Otherwise, the tables show a comparison of the current value to a comparable preceeding period of time (e.g., the data for the month of April 2001 compared to that of March 2001).

 Click here to read the report in HTML.

Oregon’s mileage-based taxation experiment declared a roaring success; Final Report now available

April 2, 2009 at 12:04 pm

(Source: Streetsblog & WorldChanging)

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has compiled a 100-page report on the experiment that covers a lot of ground, but basically describes the trial as a roaring success. A few interesting features of this report :

  • Overhead is low. Because the mileage tax piggybacks on the existing gas tax collection system, it’s easy and cheap for the state to administer.
  • Payment is simple. From the driver’s perspective, the mileage tax differs little from the gas tax, other than the fact that their gas station receipts contain interesting information on miles driven.
  • Privacy is protected. The state only gets odometer information, not information about vehicle location.
  • Evasion is difficult. Even if you tamper with the GPS receiver, you’re still going to pay the gas tax.
  • Phased implementation is possible. Oregon doesn’t foresee a complete changeover to mileage taxes happening until 2040. This is a bit too slow for my taste (I really hope gas stations don’t exist in 2040), but the point is that gas taxes and mileage taxes can happily coexist as the vehicle fleet turns over.

Technically, the system worked. Just as importantly, public acceptance was high. 91% of [self-selected] test participants preferred the system to paying gas taxes.… Before the experiment began, media portrayals of the system were almost uniformly negative — and inaccurate. By the middle of 2006, media coverage ranged from neutral to positive, and were far more accurate. Citizen comment reflected this broader trend. ODOT concludes, “Effective communication can lead to public acceptance.”

Click here to read blogger Adam Stein’s take on this subject at WorldChanging.com.  For those interested here is the final report in PDF form. 

 

Taxing Issues: How Will the Feds Handle Electric Vehicles?

March 10, 2009 at 12:29 pm

(Source:  Bnet.com Auto)

When people use the word “tax” and the phrase “electric car” in the same sentence, they’re usually talking about the lucrative tax credits you can grab onto by buying one.

But there’s another way to look at the tax issue. Suppose, as many analysts are now concluding, the bulk of the car fleet shifts from gasoline to electric. Will we tax EV recharges the way we now tax gas (at 18.4 cents a gallon)? Dr. Lyle Dennis, whose website GM-Volt.com champions Chevrolet’s plug-in hybrid, asks, “Will they raise taxes on electric rates and make EV recharging more expensive? It’s an important question.”

It seems to make more sense to simply switch to a “vehicles miles traveled” tax that’s agnostic on how cars get around. Mileage could be tracked with GPS devices installed in cars. But that’s off the table for now. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said his department was studying the idea, but an Obama spokesman quickly denied it is now or ever will be U.S. policy.

Click here to read th eentire article.

Transportation and Infrastructure Chair James Oberstar endorses a gas tax increase and mileage tax

March 10, 2009 at 11:15 am

(Source: Greenwire via New York Times)

A temporary hike to the federal gas tax and a controversial plan to charge Americans for every mile they drive will be part of the funding mix for future roadwork, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said today.

Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), whose committee is drafting the House bill that will finance the bulk of the nation’s surface transportation for the next six years, said because federal revenues from fuel taxes have fallen, his committee has no choice but to use new financing mechanisms to make up the difference.

“We will have multiple revenue sources as we go into the authorization period,” Oberstar told reporters today. “Vehicle miles traveled will be one.”

 Charging drivers a small fee for every mile they travel is “a more efficient, more effective, more beneficial way to generate revenues into the Highway Trust Fund because it will more accurately measure the effect on the roadways of congestion, of wear and tear on our road and bridge surfaces than a simple gas tax,” he added.

Click here to read the entire article.

Tax Time: Obama Urged to Raise Gas Taxes to Save Roads

February 27, 2009 at 10:54 am

(Source: Wall Street Journal’s Environmental Capital Blog)

President Obama this week urged the country to boldly confront challenges and take responsibility for the future. Today he was starkly reminded by a Congressionally-appointed commission to do the same when it comes to filling the massive hole in the nation’s transportation budget.

MinnBridge_art_400_20090226091627.jpg
In a report issued today, the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission said that raising gasoline taxes and taxing miles driven instead of gallons are the only viable ways to get the tattered U.S. road and transit system back on track. The Obama administration just shot down both proposals.

The recommendation was two years in the making—the commission’s mix of transport industry veterans, elected officials and think-tankers has been trying to divine how to raise the extra money needed to maintain and improve roads, buses, and trains.

Click here to read the entire article.

ATA argues against mile-based tax

February 27, 2009 at 12:22 am

(Source: etrucker.com)

The American Trucking Associations this week opposed a federal recommendation for a vehicle miles traveled tax, saying it presents privacy concerns.

ATA’s comments come in response to the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission’s report on highway funding challenges. The commission anticipates increasing problems with relying on fuel taxes to support infrastructure improvements because of increasing strides in fuel efficiency.

The commission’s solution – to migrate to a vehicle miles traveled tax – presents privacy concerns that not only are intrusive, but also could lead to new forms of fraud and identity theft, ATA argues. Also, the costs to implement and maintain the program would reduce the amount of funds available for infrastructure, ATA says.

Click here to read the entire article.

Untangling Transportation Funding – Brookings Institution’s paper on Vehicle Mileage Taxation

February 26, 2009 at 3:24 pm

(Source :  Thanks to Robert Puentes @ The Brookings Institution for sharing this article)

Already, we have had not one—but two—national commissions on the topic, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently added transportation financing to its annual list of high-risk areas suggested for oversight by the current Congress.

Why the high anxiety? 

Put simply: the money flowing out of the federal transportation trust fund (often referred to as the “highway” trust fund) is greater than the money flowing into it. This past September Washington was forced to shift $8 billion from the general fund to cover a shortfall in the transportation account. Estimates for how short the fund will be this summer hover around $9 billion.

Despite the sharp, and perhaps simplistic, rhetoric of late, the origins of the shortfall are the result of multiple trends converging.

For one, the federal gas tax—generating nearly 90 percent of the federal transportation revenue—has not been raised in nearly 20 years, not even to keep pace with inflation. So, as the rate effectively declines, so does the purchasing power of the trust fund. The current 18.4 cent per gallon tax in the U.S. is far less than in European competitor nations.

Click here to read the antire article.

FedEx Chief Opposes Vehicle Mileage Tax (VMT)

February 24, 2009 at 12:15 am

(Source:  trafficworldonline.com)

The CEO of one of the largest U.S. transportation companies opposes replacing the gas tax with a vehicle mileage tax, claiming it would be unfair to many motorists.

Replacing the federal fuels tax with a tax on vehicle miles traveled would be “ill-advised,” said Fred Smith, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx, Memphis, Tenn.

Such a levy would “unfairly penalize parts of the country – Montana, North Dakota -where people” have to travel long distances, Smith said Feb. 23 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where he promoted the use of electric vehicles.

Click here to read the entire article.