[Vision2020] Tax by the mile

[David M. Budge]

A look to the future.  What say you Democrats and Rpublicans?

Dave Budge

<http://www.cbsnews.com>
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States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile
CORVALLIS, Ore., Feb. 14, 2005


College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a 
month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas 
bill once topped his car payment.

"I was paying about $500 a month," says Just.

So Just bought a fuel efficient hybrid and said goodbye to his 
gas-guzzling BMW.

And what kind of mileage does he get?

"The EPA estimate is 60 in the city, 51 on the highway," says Just.

And that saves him almost $300 a month in gas. It's great for Just but 
bad for the roads he's driving on, because he also pays a lot less in 
gasoline taxes which fund highway projects and road repairs. As more and 
more hybrids hit the road, cash-strapped states are warning of rough 
roads ahead.

Officials in car-clogged California are so worried they may be 
considering a replacement for the gas tax altogether, replacing it with 
something called "tax by the mile 
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Seeing tax dollars dwindling, neighboring Oregon has already started 
road testing the idea.

"Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and 
it's as simple as that," says engineer David Kim.

Kim and his team at Oregon State University equipped a test car with a 
global positioning device to keep track of its mileage. Eventually, 
every car would need one.

"So, if you drive 10 miles you will pay a certain fee which will be, 
let's say, one tenth of what someone pays if they drive 100 miles," says 
Kim.

The new tax would be charged each time you fill up. A computer inside 
the gas pump would communicate with your car's odometer to calculate how 
much you owe.

The system could also track how often you drive during rush hour and 
charge higher fees to discourage peak use. That's an idea that could 
break the bottleneck on California's freeways.

"We're getting a lot of interest from other states," says Jim Whitty of 
the Oregon Department of Transportation. "They're watching what we're 
doing.

"Transportation officials across the country are concerned about what's 
going to happen with the gas tax revenues."

Privacy advocates say it's more like big brother riding on your bumper, 
not to mention a disincentive to buy fuel-efficient cars.

"It's not fair for people like me who have to commute, and we don't have 
any choice but take the freeways," says Just. "We shouldn't have to be 
taxed."

But tax-by-mile advocates say it may be the only way to ensure that fuel 
efficiency doesn't prevent smooth sailing down the road.


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