States Move Closer to Taxing You by How Far You Drive

CBS

“Per-mile charges are the most high-profile and discussed alternative to the gas tax,” said Jaime Rall, a transportation specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “States want to know if this is going to be a viable way to fund transportation into the future.”

The question of lost revenues with the gas tax arises especially with all-electric cars like the Nissan Leaf or Tesla models. Those motorists pay no gas tax at all, although their electric bills do include some taxes.

The Oregon pilot programs seeks to demonstrate whether a per-mile tax is a practical possibility. The state is finding 5,000 volunteers to pay 1.5-cents-per-mile tax instead of the 30 cents-per-gallon gas tax. Devices will report their mileage to the state. Other states are trying smaller pilot projects, including Nevada, Washington, Minnesota and California. The U.S. Senate passed a bill calling for a $90 million pilot project involving 10,000 cars. But the House leadership killed the bill after complaints from rural lawmakers that such a tax would unfairly penalize their constituents, who tend to drive farther than city drivers.

Originally developed for insurance companies to measure driving habits and potentially use them to lower your rates, these devices now are being modified to simply track mileage driven for state tax purposes. Progressive Insurance gives policy holders who volunteer a device to plug into the diagnostic port in their cars. The device sends back not only the number of miles driven but also whether you drive aggressively (speeding up, then braking sharply, for instance).

In a similar program, GMAC insurance uses technology already installed in some General Motors cars. The OnStar service, which also can alert an operator to call 911 in an emergency or remotely diagnose a car’s problems, reports actual miles driven for subscribers who sign up for the insurance plan to qualify for discounts.

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