Why Americans will soon pay more to drive every mile

[DaveinOlyWA]

We cannot afford to pay lower gas prices!!

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pay per mile? Did that in VA decades ago (well not me. It was my Dad)

http://daveinolywa.blogspot.com/2012/12/was-100-ev-tax.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[kentuckyleaf]

I wouldn't mind the per mile tax based on weight, with big trucks (which translates to "us consumers") carrying most of the burden. Much of what is on the interstate should be on rail anyway. Everyone is in such a hurry to get their stuff! We have a problem in Kentucky where the population and income are both low, but the state is large and has many miles of roads. I think this is part of the reason we pay both sales tax when we purchase a vehicle, and property tax when we renew our tags. It is a little excessive!

Why don't we do something like the CCC and let unemployed folks build roads instead of paying them for two years not to work? I mean, we have work that needs done, and people that want to work don't we? I would have jumped at the chance to work when I was unemployed. Why don't we turn old military bases into colleges for low income folks, or provide work opportunities for the unemployed, doing this or that government's pet project (think solar and wind construction, or home insulation and white roofs). There are many solutions, but this "do nothing" government can't raise a tax or cut a dollar from their budget when we really are falling off a cliff. What happened to this country?

 

[mrdcmills]

I see a lot of bitchin about trucks. What do you have in your house that didn't come on a truck? The Federal tax on gas is 18.4 cents and diesel is 24.4. I live in Florida the tax is 16.6 cents for gas and 18.4 for diesel. If the trucker buys 60-90 gal a day it adds up. I don't know about your state but he also pays over $1000 for a tag. We got a $7500 gift and also don't pay to use the road. Lay low and enjoy it while you can.
Dana

 

[smkettner]

Just raise the gas tax already

While I think gasoline taxes should be a bit higher just to cover the hidden costs of acquiring and burning them, please do be aware that the gasoline tax is extremely regressive and hurts the lowest income people the most. The kind of people who are lucky to afford a used beater just to get to work, and likely couldn't afford an EV or any other type of new, fuel efficient vehicle.

The gasoline tax is just a proxy for road usage anyway. As stated by others, most if not all road vehicles are subject to annual safety inspection, or at the very least semi-annual registration. Payments of mileage tax can be made in installments. I've previously endorsed the idea that, if you live in a state with mandatory liability insurance, the payments for road usage can be rolled into the insurance payments.

Not sure I buy into that. I see poor people driving 10+ year old econo boxes and the wealthier driving a big Mercedes, V-12 BMW or Caddy SUV.
If the poor have an old gas guzzler then it is more choice than low cost vehicle. JMHO.

And either way a flat fee per mile would not seem any more progressive.

 

[evnow]

I see a lot of bitchin about trucks. What do you have in your house that didn't come on a truck? The Federal tax on gas is 18.4 cents and diesel is 24.4. I live in Florida the tax is 16.6 cents for gas and 18.4 for diesel. If the trucker buys 60-90 gal a day it adds up. I don't know about your state but he also pays over $1000 for a tag. We got a $7500 gift and also don't pay to use the road. Lay low and enjoy it while you can.
Dana

Yes - the tax adds up. So, the goods start moving by trains. Now we are subsidizing the movement by road and it is regressive - adds a lot of pollution in the process.

 

[Smidge204]

If the poor have an old gas guzzler then it is more choice than low cost vehicle. JMHO.

If you cannot afford a modern car, but public transit is not sufficient to get you to and from work, what choice is there?

Per-mile tax is less regressive because it's essentially impartial with respect to the vehicle type. If you add in weight as a factor it actually becomes slightly progressive since luxury vehicles tend to be heavier than average.
=Smidge=

 

[kentuckyleaf]

I really don't know why stating facts about trucks is considered "bitchin" It is a simple fact that trucks are much harder on the roads than say a Leaf or a Prius. If a fully loaded simi is doing 60 times the damage, and is only paying 10 times the fuel tax, well there is a problem that needs attention. If that translates to higher prices at the store, so be it. This isn't "bitchn," it's finding a solution to the problem. Our government wastes money on thousands of things they shouldn't, but maintaining roads is something they should do. Paying for our roads and safe bridges is something WE should do. To take this one step further, I think most of us that have posted here would agree that EV owners use the road, and we should figure out a way to help pay for the roads outside of fuel taxes.

What we can't do anymore is continue utilizing the same broken model, and pretending like it is okay. Taxes are collected the same way today that they were before cell phones, computers, and "black boxes." I think we can come up with a more modern solution.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I see a lot of bitchin about trucks. What do you have in your house that didn't come on a truck? The Federal tax on gas is 18.4 cents and diesel is 24.4. I live in Florida the tax is 16.6 cents for gas and 18.4 for diesel. If the trucker buys 60-90 gal a day it adds up. I don't know about your state but he also pays over $1000 for a tag. We got a $7500 gift and also don't pay to use the road. Lay low and enjoy it while you can.
Dana

so, we essentially made a HUGE mistake by putting in the federal highway system which allowed Joe Blow to cruise alone in his Caddy and because of that, anything done to try to fix it is a mistake?

where is the mistake here? Sure, it might have been ok (although it wasnt) to build a highway system to criss cross the country 6 decades ago, but it isnt anymore.

now, we have no real rail infrastructure and what we do have would embarrass a 3rd world country.

long haul trucking had its place but that place is living on borrowed time. it no longer works, its way too much of a strain on the infrastructure not to mention the fuel it burns and shrinking margins in the industry means truckers drive faster and longer and increase the risk for the rest of us.

Trucks will never go away because they are an unreplacable last mile part of the delivery system but they need to be restricted to no more than a few hundred miles. building an essentially entirely new rail system will take decades on untold trillions but betting it will keep a lot of people working for a long long time and right now, generating jobs is a good idea.

besides, i like the thought of loading up my LEAF at the amtrak station in Oly, riding the rails to CA and LEAFing it to Disneyland!

 

[smkettner]

If the poor have an old gas guzzler then it is more choice than low cost vehicle. JMHO.

If you cannot afford a modern car, but public transit is not sufficient to get you to and from work, what choice is there?

My 1987 (modern?) Chevrolet Sprint easily got 50 mpg. Lots of old Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans will return very respectable mileage. If they choose an old Cadillac that is not my problem to engineer a progressive tax system around their choices.

 

[ranss12]

I read that when civil engineers design a road, they don't even take into account how many cars will use the road, only the number of trucks since the trucks are what cause ALL of the damage. If they are causing 99% of the damage but are paying only 40% of the taxes, then car drivers are subsidizing the trucking industry.