Tech Friday: Driving, tracking, privacy, gasoline/diesel taxes, or a VMT tax to support our roads and bridges infrastructure
Posted By RichC on June 25, 2021
Currently, we attempt to pay for infrastructure by taxing drivers at the pump when they fill their cars and trucks with gasoline and diesel fuel … but vehicles are becoming more efficient while the cost of infrastructure and maintenance continues to goes up. In other words, there isn’t enough money being collected. The politicians answer in the past has been to tax more, yet it is never a popular solution. It also puts the burden on the owners of older vehicles since they are the least efficient (also a regressive tax) while newer battery-laden electrically charged vehicles skate by without paying road taxes on when their charge. So raising the gas/diesel tax is a short term solution that doesn’t solve the problem, 
especially as we transition to EVs.
For a little more thought on this subject, Eric Cunningham’s article from Ordinary Times was helpful. He broaches the subject and addresses the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) tax being bantered about and the many challenges … from the costly administration problem, to how to track, privacy concerns and the enforcement bureaucracy.
How does a VMT work?
In theory, the VMT would be fairly simple. Advocates are often careful to refer to the VMT as a “fee”, not a tax, but in reality it’s a tax like any other. The miles you drive would be tracked, and you would pay a (somewhat) flat tax per mile depending on the type of vehicle you own; I say “somewhat” flat here there are already plans to implement “congestion charging” fees for the crime of driving at the same time as other people, or of driving somewhere where a lot of people live. How these miles are tracked seems to vary. Some have suggested odometer reporting, although at the state level this would tax people for miles driven in other states, robbing those states of tax revenue. Others have suggested requiring a transponder in your vehicle which will continually track every mile you drive; the latter proposal is where the problems arise. Washington state has also experimented with pre-paying for the expected number of miles driven, which seems to be an even less ideal solution. In return for this new tax, a total repeal of the gas tax is often — but not always — suggested. However, the government’s history on actually replacing taxes rather than adding them tends to be fairly poor.
