Pay-per-mile vs Gas Tax

[Prickly Pear]

Here in Washington they are proposing to replace state gas tax with a pay-per-mile charge. Claim the EV's and to a lesser extent hybrids are not paying their fare share of the road tax. Supposedly Oregon and three other states have some sort of pay-per-mile program. If you are in one of these states I'd like to hear how it is working out for you. If not, any general comments? In the example I saw if you even average 25 MPG you will pay more with the new plan than you do with Washington's gas tax. There is also talk of just charging hybrids more to register per year. I remember when you were encouraged to drive a car that was good on gas.....

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[bgn]

Washington should get started with shoring up the budget by pulling people over for expired tabs/registration. I'm tired of the freeloaders, especially the folks that are driving 50k vehicles.

 

[FreedomPenguin]

Washington should get started with shoring up the budget by pulling people over for expired tabs/registration. I'm tired of the freeloaders, especially the folks that are driving 50k vehicles.

90% if folk in my area don’t even have license plates, all they care about is black tint, giant wheels, despite bumpers and stuff being held together with duck tape

wish they’d be impounded. They don’t pay their fees. Almost got hit by one few days ago, driving at night no lights on.

 

[Prickly Pear]

Washington should get started with shoring up the budget by pulling people over for expired tabs/registration. I'm tired of the freeloaders, especially the folks that are driving 50k vehicles.

I was just saying that to the family today - I see cars with 2+ year old expired tabs. Guess the cops have better things to do. I actually got hassled a few years back in Mill Creek WA for having tabs that would expire at the end of the month. Cop told me they expire at the first of the month - no way.

 

[Dano]

Here in Washington they are proposing to replace state gas tax with a pay-per-mile charge. Claim the EV's and to a lesser extent hybrids are not paying their fare share of the road tax. Supposedly Oregon and three other states have some sort of pay-per-mile program. If you are in one of these states I'd like to hear how it is working out for you. If not, any general comments? In the example I saw if you even average 25 MPG you will pay more with the new plan than you do with Washington's gas tax. There is also talk of just charging hybrids more to register per year. I remember when you were encouraged to drive a car that was good on gas.....

It won't "replace state gas tax", it will supplement the per gallon tax. Sounds like BS to me!!

 

[inline_five]

People will just stop registering their vehicles. Here in NC it's already an issue since we also pay property tax on cars, and cops can't pull you over for it.

 

[inline_five]

Washington should get started with shoring up the budget by pulling people over for expired tabs/registration. I'm tired of the freeloaders, especially the folks that are driving 50k vehicles.

Interestingly enough, same deal here in NC as we pay property tax on the vehicles as well. My neighbors have a Maserati, Denali, and Acura and all three have expired registration or just have the temp stick on the plate from when they first bought it.

 

[HeyBales]

So how would that work - when you do yearly tag renewal they confirm your mileage - confirm what you drove past year, and do some makeup tax?
Do that for everyone actually?
That should make DMV lines interesting.

Because I don't see how they would know what MPG someone is getting.

That's as bad as the increased annual tag/registration fee attempting to do the same thing.
I can see the need, just an odd way of doing it.
We have PHEV pricing, and BEV pricing.

And yes - the heavier battery vehicles buying less gas are indeed paying less for the roads - so it is a problem as it shifts more to the gas-only vehicles.
Now usually bad MPG can mean heavier vehicle tearing up road more - so buying more fuel giving more taxes for road repair somewhat makes sense.
But they will find a way to get the funds they need - or people will scream about the bad roads.
Could be interesting how they figure to replace lost revenue if not thru something auto-related.

 

[Prickly Pear]

Here is one of the many articles on the proposal - it is not going to come here for a few years but thought it might be a topic of interest.

https://www.kuow.org/stories/washington-road-usage-charge-hb-1921

 

[HeyBales]

Here is one of the many articles on the proposal - it is not going to come here for a few years but thought it might be a topic of interest.

https://www.kuow.org/stories/washington-road-usage-charge-hb-1921

Well, if people didn't already have an incentive to not do annual registration to avoid proving they had insurance, this will stop more of them.
I'm sure you have as many driving around with no plates or long expired temp tags - and rarely taken care of by police stops.

Credits for miles driven out of state - self-reported. Oh yeah, that'll go well.

It's too bad the only reliable way of getting the tax was at the pump.
Maybe when buying tires, another use items related to road usage?

 

[justiz00]

I wonder if you could use forscan to manipulate the tire size to make the Speedo read slower and just use a GPS to track actual speed.

 

[Prickly Pear]

Well, if people didn't already have an incentive to not do annual registration to avoid proving they had insurance, this will stop more of them.
I'm sure you have as many driving around with no plates or long expired temp tags - and rarely taken care of by police stops.

Credits for miles driven out of state - self-reported. Oh yeah, that'll go well.

It's too bad the only reliable way of getting the tax was at the pump.
Maybe when buying tires, another use items related to road usage?

You are right about gas tax working best in the past - but something will have to give if road repair revenue dries up.

 

[zorki1c]

Mileage tax discriminates against us folks out west where to have to drive long distances as part of the daily routine. Drivers in Massachusetts can go from one side of the state to the other in a couple of hours. In Idaho, where I live, our second largest county is larger than Massachusetts! It requires a long day to drive from the Nevada border to the Canadian border - close to 700 miles I believe.
It costs more to build and maintain highways in say , Los Angeles, than in Twin Falls Idaho. A federal mileage tax would put a larger part of the burden on folks in flyover country.

 

[The Real Maverick]

Mileage tax discriminates against us folks out west where to have to drive long distances as part of the daily routine. Drivers in Massachusetts can go from one side of the state to the other in a couple of hours. In Idaho, where I live, our second largest county is larger than Massachusetts! It requires a long day to drive from the Nevada border to the Canadian border - close to 700 miles I believe.
It costs more to build and maintain highways in say , Los Angeles, than in Twin Falls Idaho. A federal mileage tax would put a larger part of the burden on folks in flyover country.

The hell you say!

People in California have it worst.
They have to live 50 - 60 - 80 miles away from work. Most jobs are in the big cities but the only affordable homes, or only homes for that matter are waaaaaaay out of town.

What CA does NOT have a lot of is... high rise housing. High density workplace, but very little high density housing so everyone has to drive to their one story one family home. The American dream right?

 

[Hybrid25XLTAWD]

while in theory, it sucks, in reality, it sucks

I've got a friend in the capitol & he's looked over the entirety of the proposal, and sad to say, as is typical with everything in this state (think $10 car tabs), there are no provisions in the proposal to eliminate or even lower the gas tax..from what I understand, it'll end up being a "double" that will somehow be either hidden or mis-represented to the voters in an effort to get it passed

also, as a commercial driver, this whole tax-by-mile leads to another interesting question..say I travel a lot: am I now going to need to report mileage start and end every time I cross a state border? currently, with the IFTA taxes, you record each and every road & start and stop mileage for fuel tax reporting..this could be a giant pain in the A$$ for passenger vehicles as it is with commercial vehicles..just more paperwork & documentation to make sure we keep as much of our own money as possible
what about toll bridges & roads, am I not only going to have to pay the tolls, but pay for the miles driven on those roads as well?

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