Tax per gallon, or per mile?

Sorry, couldn't help m'self....but what chance do you estimate of this happening? I think it's moved beyond the 50th percentile.

 

It does seem pretty grim. My only consolation is that every generation has felt this way since the beginning of time. Hopefully we are just old codgers overreacting.

Tom

 

haha, the information age doesn't help. I'm in my lower 30s, old in some circles, I suppose.

 

Hi All,

It makes more sense to tax per gallon. Taxing per mile, in effect puts a negative demand on fuel efficienct vehicles. Besides that, a Motorcycle which does little to no damage to roadways, gets the same tax as an 18 wheel truck, with a full load, which will do considerable damage to roads - drive down Ill Route 83 through Elk Grove Village, IL to understand this very clearly!

Heavier vehicles use more gas and do more damage to roads - and so automatically pay more tax - as it should be. High powered vehicles tear up roads with rapid accellerations, using more tax - and automatically pay more tax - as it should be.

What this investigation into tax per mile is all about, is Politicians not liking the idea that we Prius people are forceing them to increase the rate, or will inevitably - and the SUV crowd is not going to like it, and is not going to vote for them. The collected funds wont be any more (if they do it honestly), but the rate will have to go up , as does average fleet mileage.

If anything makes sense, it that the tax should be non-linear, as road damage is non-linear with vehicle weight. When you pull into a station, your vehicle gets weighed, and your tax rate is set on a sliding scale based on that.

 

You must of just jumped in at the end and missed the meat of this thread. The whole point is that EVs don't use gas, so taxing by the gallon doesn't work for them. It's not a big deal for now, but if EVs become popular changes will be needed in how we pay for roads.

Tom