State mulls pay-by-mile gas tax in response to fuel-efficient cars

I have several problems with this.

First, now that I'm retired I don't drive many miles unless I'm traveling. Just last year I took 2 vacations that took me to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, California and Oregon resulting in several thousands of miles on the odometer. Is it fair that a person who travels OUT of state with their vehicle should have to pay mileage fees when most of the miles were driven in other states? I'm sure I was paying gas tax in those states, so that would be double taxation.

Also, if they abolish the gas tax and institute a "road user assessment system", then I assume that ONLY WA State residents who use the roads would have to pay. And that would mean that anyone traveling through WA State would NOT have to pay. I don't know about the rest of the state, but up here in the NW corner of the state, we get a whole lot of Canadian traffic. Even with our seemingly high gas taxes, gas is cheaper here than it is in Canada so when they come down here they usually fill up their vehicles and a few 5 gallon gas cans to take back home. We would not only lose tax revenue from the Canadian sales, but they would not have to pay to use our roads. 

Second, Smart phone apps... I don't have a "Smart phone" and I don't want one. Surely I can't be the ONLY person who doesn't want or can't afford a "Smart phone" or the fees and contracts that come with them. What about the people with limited incomes like disabled veterans, seniors or disabled on Social Security, those on other forms of public assistance, or the person who refuses to take public assistance and is just getting by on what they earn? This is a BAD idea unless the state is going to buy every resident a "Smart" phone and give them free service.

Third, I don't want a transponder or GPS system so that the government can track my every move. And are they going to differentiate between miles driven within the state or out of state (or out of the country)? Would the GPS system only track mileage when the engine is on or would it also charge if the engine was off? For instance; what if my vehicle is on a ferry and I have paid my fare to transport my vehicle on the ferry? Do I have to pay mileage in addition to the ferry fee? What if a vehicle is being towed on a flatbed truck or behind a motor home that is already paying the GPS mileage fee? In addition, I doubt that our state will just give them out, so most likely we would have to pay for the devices. This would be an invasion of privacy and unfair!

Fourth, I think this will really hurt those who have to drive for living, or delivery businesses. Will the pizza/food delivery guy, the florist, real estate agent, fix-it guy, house cleaner, landscaper, etc. be able to afford to pay by the mile? And will it raise the cost to ship a package through FedEx, UPS, etc.?

If revenue has dropped off because people are driving less, carpooling more, taking public transit, walking, riding bicycles, or have purchased fuel efficient vehicles, why should we have to pay extra for that? For years the government and others have encouraged us to "Go Green" and do these things to lower our gas consumption, produce less pollution and "save the earth". Now that we have done what was asked of us, our state wants to penalize us for that! (Go to YouTube and type in "Beatles taxman").

Also, if people are driving less, then that should equate to less wear and tear on the roads. In addition, most fuel efficient vehicles are smaller and weigh less and should therefore also cause less damage to the roads.

Based on what I've seen others experience with the 520 toll bridge situation, I wouldn't trust WA State to be honest in their accounting of the mileage or payment of fees. I suspect that if they could institute this system, they would make the bulk of their money by charging HUGE fines if you were late in paying your mileage fees, or if you paid but they entered the information wrong and you were never credited for your payment. Then your fines would be astronomical! As it is with the toll bridge situation, even if they make a mistake, they say it is YOUR fault. If you can't pay several hundred dollars in fines, then you can't renew your license.

I think that handing over our ability to control what fees we pay to the state, is akin to letting the fox into the hen house. The outcome for us won't be good!

I pay 3 cents a mile now with the gas tax.

Does that mean I will pay 4 1/2 cents a mile?

I am laughing my b*tt off.. this tax is not to even the playing field. Its to get even with the makers of those electric/gas auto builders..Drive em out of business by making it unpleasant to own one. Good move Washington State.. sigh

We should call it the Pius tax. 

I think we finally found a tax liberals don't like.

1.5 cents per mile is insane!  Perhaps a mile tax should be solely enforced on electric or plug in vehicles.  The gas tax is extremely fair means funding transportation.  Heavy vehicles get poor gas mileage, heavy vehicles damage roads, they also pay much more.  

 

If the state were to do anything smart, they would enforce weight-based tolls on semi-trucks.  The vehicles which f-up the roads should pay much.  Perhaps the tolls should be enforced on KC metro transit as well... their over-loaded, over-weight coaches mess-up the roads more than any other vehicles on the roads.  If you don't believe me, just try driving the streets of Seattle.

This is another failed case for the Government to ruin what the market is correcting.  This is a liberal mind set.  Move to California if socialism is working so well for you.  No the liberals wreck CA then move else and elect and choose the same policies that ruined their own state.  The American people will not wake up until its too late to get that 900 lbs gorilla off their backs.   If our country was run according to our founders vision, there wouldn't be all these taxes and we would have a safer world through small governments.   What group of people want to kill people in other countries with out Government first creating the conditions for anger and resentments. 

So Washington is going to punish the people that bought fuel efficient vehicles?

Umm.. so doesn't this seem as though it will backfire? So much for cleaning up the pollution here.  If I'm going to get charged a tax for driving, I might as well get a bigger car...   After the alcohol sales debacle, they'll probably charge you at the pump AND for driving.  Major fail. 

Great! Now I can trade in my wife's wimpy Prius for that beautiful Dodge Ram 3500.

As much as The State loves to plunder us, this is more about being able to put a tracking device on every vehicle in the country.

Sounds more big brother than anything else. As far as I'm concerned it ain't goina happen  Watch people head for other states to license their cars. Then the state can spend all the extra cash enforcing license laws. Me, I own property in Idaho and if they try this that's what I'll do.

 Why don't you people kick those politicans out instead of whining all the time? You people are pathetic.

So they  will repeal the gas tax and then make a pay per use tax right? Yeah Right.

They want to ask us for 1.5 cents per mile. We're already paying at the pumps. They want to raise the gas to $5 per gallon eventually. Plus they want 1.5 cents per mile every time we drive our car.  What would prevent them from changing that 1.5 cents to 2 or 3 cents per mile down the road.  What about retired people who are just making it on a low income who have to get back and forth to the doctor and then they are forced to pay that price when they can barely afford that price now. ????

Tim Eyman will get involved.  Otherwise the majority of this State are liberals, so that is what we get! You wanted Pot you got Pot!  I think they should charge more tax on Pot to pay for the roads. 

Why don't they just charge the drivers from Oregon, Idaho, Etc. for using our roads when they come here to buy their pot?

They'll pay anything to get here.

http://www.instash.com/hoverbike

They will spend several million dollars for ANOTHER study? Why didn't they just do it right the first time. It never ceases to amaze me how these people operate. They want people to use less gasoline, but when they do they want to penalize them for that. It won't be long until they will be charging everyone so much a mile to drive their cars, this is just the beginning I would guess. Anything to wring every dollar out of people that they can.

Is it too late to ask for a re-count? The libs strike again!!!

That defeats the purpose of having a fuel efficient car!!!

 

Just another example of Government GREED. 

 

Bet the oil companies are behind this too.....

Last I heard, research was that it takes 40,000 cars to equal the "damage" that one regular semi-truck does in terms of road wear and tear. Wonder if the cost/mile will reflect this? I don't mind paying for roads, after all I use them like everyone else. But the legislature needs to "show their work" as my old math teacher would say, before they just dump a cost/mile on us.  Oh, and they better get rid of the gas tax too, if they decide to switch to this... /maybe we can finally get some hydrogen powered cars then too!

Well, bugger. Buy a car that's good for the environment and saves me money and the state trys to tax me on the money I was trying to save.

 

Apparently, Washington [My Washington] is trying to rise up the ladder on the Most Taxed States in the Union. At my last reading, from Forbes sometime last year, we were 8th.

 

Thanks a stack, Olympia.

The state Legislature will be asked to spend several million dollars on another study to find a recommended method.

 

Really?

here in Texas, the State gets 20 cents per gallon in tax. If your car gets 20 miles per gallon, you pay 1 cent per mile in taxes.If they don't remove the gas tax at the pump, you washington people will be screwed... just go get stoned, and pay your damned gas tax... lol 

Ya know, HOW ABOUT I BILL THE STATE for the crappy pot-hole filled streets in Spokane that cost me $$$ for new tires, front-end alignment, and beating the living hell out my suspension system? How about THAT?"The state predicts gas tax collected today won't add up to enough cash to pay for future road projects."

How about the crap-tapuler job you do NOW at NOT FIXING ANYTHING????I'm about ready to tell WA. to kiss my butt and move to N. Dakota.

Such a bunch of hypocrites in the legislature. They say they want to help the environment by getting people to drive hybrids and then they're going to charge them extra for doing the right thing. As usual, makes no sense. If they need more money for roads then get the prevailing wage structure fixed for state workers and subcontractors. They get paid 3X what anyone working in the private industry gets. $42 an hour for a truck driver?lol Been driving for 20 years and nobody but the state pays that kind of ridiculous money for a truck driver.

Once again,,,  there's toooooo much slop at the top. Our so called leaders are proposing to spend "SEVERAL MILLION",,,,  on a craps table,,,  why not use that "SEVERAL MILLION" to improver existing issues??? It galls me to see these "leaders" misuse funds like this,,,  follow the money here,,,  talk about smoke and mirrors,,  and how many IS,,,,,   SEVERAL???  What the heck,,, it's just money. They must think we are sleepwalking. I think we should charge them by the pound and monitor their weight annually. 

This report brought to you by the same people who tell the public with a straight face that the new 520 pontoons - already cracked, are "being fixed, and are safe".  This is a lot like buying a new car, and the dealer tells you he has a solution to take care of those scratched in your brand new car you  paid for.  The state government is a joke - the WSDOT, along with just about every other department is 100% incompetent.  Yes, spend more precious $ on new "studies" - I assume the studies will be done by people who are owed a favor from the idiots in Olympia.   This state hemorrhages money. Don't even get me started on the "unions" - it's a joke - and these unions along with the inept leadership in Olympia are destroying this state from inside out.   Think it's time for our own version of the "Arab Spring"?  We need to organize, and clean house.  Paula Hammond and company need to be removed and jailed solely on the charge of failed leadership.

The Netherlands proposed this a year or so ago and it went nowhere.  The thing that burns my butt about this article is the following statement: "The state Legislature will be asked to spend several million dollars on another study to find a recommended method."  They'll hire some consulting firm at outrages rates just like they did for the Evergreen bridge replacement when they could hire a few staff to do the study for a lot less.  Since there are numerous other states and even countries that are considering this they should develop a cooperative agreement and all pitch into one pool to pay for a study if it's even needed with all the information out there.  I drive a Prius and in the last several years our mileage has dropped about 10% due to changes in the gas formulations.  Big gas guzzlers should be paying much more since they cause more damage to the roads.  And as one poster said on here studded tires are a major contributor to the road damage.  They should be outlawed for vehicles registered in Western Washington, we don't get enough snow and ice here to justify the damage they cause.

One more thought. All of those people using trains and buses to get to work should also pay a tax. They are using less gas, so what's the difference?  Just sayin.....!

You people are such suckers. Remember the old days when everyone used to complain about the $400 hammer for the military and the $2000 toilet seat ? Well this is the same thing you bunch of sheep. Billions of dollars profit quarterly for oil companies and idiot city planners paying millions of dollars on these so called road improvement projects.....100 yard stretch of road...millions of dollars when in fact...if you added up the actual numbers...shouldn't cost more than a few hundred thousand. Give me a break. They have you acclimated to this kind of abuse...and being the faithful gutless little sheep you have become...they continue to dig deeper into our pockets. We are on a downslide...and unfortunately it's probably too late to recover. When did we, as a nation, become such compliant little clones ? I'm sick of it.

Oregon considered this too shortly after the original Insights and Priuses began increasing in numbers. A per mile tax is reasonable if it also includes some factor for how much damage is done to the roads. A 4500 lb SUV surely has a higher impact on the roads than my 1800 lb Insight did. Also, studded tires....... there should be a stiff fee for running these on the public roads, after all it is a personal choice and not a right.

For cars that use gas, why not just raise the gas tax, rather than come up with some new scheme?

 

For electric cars this makes sense. We need some way to pay for our roads. I'm also not opposed to bicycles having an annual license tag, especially if that money is earmarked for maintaining and upgrading bike lanes.

 

As long as the tax is actually used for roads, and not siphoned off to other departments, I'm OK with it.