The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) Bruce Siceloff column
By Bruce Siceloff, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
A state
The idea of a mileage fee is simple. But the execution is complicated, and the politics are dicey.
At least 10 other states have considered mileage fees. A few hundred Triangle area drivers took part in a national study done by the
In theory, with such a system in place, one day you might pay X cents a mile to the federal government for the 100 miles you added to the odometer last week -- plus state taxes at different rates for the 80-mile share that took place in
It could be easy to set these per-mile rates so that the average driver pays about the equivalent of today's per-gallon fuel tax. You could decide how much higher the per-mile charge would be for the heavy trucks that do most of the damage to our highways and bridges.
That sounds fair. And it sounds creepy. If the tax collectors know where we've been driving, who else knows?
"Our participants, even though they saw the mileage charge being a fair and equitable move, they were concerned about privacy and what's going to happen to that data," said
Drive more, pay more
Ever since the state collected its first penny per gallon in 1921, the fuel tax has resembled a user fee: The more you drove, the more you paid. The more gas we burned, the more money we had for road-building and other transportation needs.
But this is changing fast as our cars squeeze more and more miles out of every gallon. And in 2012 with support from automakers, the Obama administration announced aggressive new rules that will push the average fuel-economy standard even higher, to 54.5 miles per gallon in 2025.
This trend is good for plenty of reasons but not for
The state
As transportation costs rise, DOT expects revenue collections to fall about
Varying solutions
Other states are coming up with their own ideas.
"So far as I can see, there's not a lot of political appetite for changing a tax rate that people are reminded, every time they fill up, that they're paying," said
We've had several studies of this problem over the past decade, when Democrats were in charge and the looming problems were farther in the future. Now the Republicans want their own take on it, and they are expressing a greater sense of urgency.
"We always thought we had a few more years, and now I don't think we feel that way any more," said
McQueary chairs a board committee charged with finding answers and making recommendations. On Wednesday, her panel will hear "revenue enhancement" proposals from
Lane and Goode could not be reached for comment, but their ideas are sketched out in a file posted on the DOT website.
The big options
Among the big-dollar options: Add a percentage point to the highway use tax on car sales, which is lower in
One likely prospect is congestion pricing, already used in several states and planned for an
The Lane-Goode report suggests
Whatever the rate, Lane and Goode recommend that DOT launch a pilot program to test a system for collecting mileage fees. They mention a
Rather than get tangled in
"Mileage fees are attractive until people start to struggle with exactly how they would want to implement them," Tennyson said. "The issues get down to things like if you want to have the most accurate system, then the vehicle has to report where it's been and at what hours of the day or night, and people don't want to do that."
Americans are known to be concerned about their privacy -- even as they give away more and more of their personal information. Auto insurance companies offer discounts to drivers who agree to install technology that records information about how fast they drive and other safety indicators.
McQueary is noncommittal on the idea of a pilot study for some kind of mileage fee in
"I guess we're all hoping that there's going to be a needle we can find in this haystack that's going to solve this problem," McQueary said. "So far, nobody has the magic answer. But we're looking."
Siceloff: 919-829-4527 or newsobserver.com/roadworrierblog Twitter: @Road_Worrier
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