Mileage Tax Could Get Test Drive in Hawaii
With gas consumption projected to decrease in coming years, lawmakers are looking for a new way to pay for roads — taxing drivers based on their mileage.
and each note that revenue from gas taxes, a main source of infrastructure funding, will diminish as fuel-efficient and electric vehicles proliferate. They say there’s a better way.
“The number of miles each vehicle travels is a gauge of actual use and associated impact on the land transportation infrastructure,” says HB 1531, which was introduced by Transportation Committee Chair Joe Souki and eight others. That bill and SB 819 each instruct the Hawaii Department of Transportation to develop pilot programs to test alternatives to the existing fuel tax schemes.
The program would tally the number of miles traveled by particular vehicles and collect payments from their owners. The state would refund fuel taxes paid by those drivers, and could otherwise compensate the participants through a sweepstakes. The bills are light on specifics, and it would be up to the Hawaii Department of Transportation to figure it all out.
In [pdf] opposing the Senate measure, the Hawaii Department of Transportation says it would be “fiscally prudent” to look at studies conducted by other states with similar pilot programs before implementing a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) tax program in the islands.
It says a similar pilot program in Oregon took six years and cost $3 million.
Under Oregon’s program, some vehicles were equipped with Global Positioning Systems that recorded each mile traveled. Drivers paid the per-mile tax at the gas pump, regardless of their vehicle’s fuel efficiency, according to . A residents didn’t like the idea of a mileage tax, but didn’t like the idea of tolls, either.
Two years later, with fuel efficiency continuing to rise and gas tax revenues continuing to fall, other jurisdictions are toying with the idea of a mileage tax.
last year that was opposed by the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union on privacy grounds. An e-mail to the ACLU of Hawaii was not immediately returned.
Last week, the on a pilot program in Austin, Texas. One area editorial board said it was because it would unfairly punish drivers in rural areas.
Former U.S. Secretaries of Transportation Norman Mineta and Samuel Skinner to a VMT program from a gas tax. They argued in [pdf] that the tax could be higher during peak hours, and said technology exists to assuage privacy concerns.
SB 819 was introduced by Transportation Committee Chair Kalani English and 10 colleagues, including Ways and Means Chair David Ige. English’s committee held a Friday afternoon, then voted 5-1 in favor of the bill.
DISCUSSION: Should Hawaii consider replacing its fuel taxes with a mileage tax program? Join the conversation.
