Sooner or later, the state and federal governments will need to adjust how they collect money to pay for new roads and for road maintenance. More efficient vehicles and an increase of hybrid and electric vehicles are slowly rendering pay-at-the-pump taxes obsolete.
And while the public is somewhat suspicious when lawmakers start talking about taxes, there is at least one selling point any eventual change: How would you like it if gas prices dropped 49.4 cents per gallon? How about 67.8 cents per gallon?
Washington drivers pay nearly 50 cents in state tax for each gallon of gas, the second-highest rate in the nation. Add in the federal tax of 18.4 cents, and we are paying more than two-thirds of a dollar in taxes for each gallon. With a change to the system becoming inevitable, Washington has undertaken a pilot project to assess alternatives.
The pilot program is winding down at the end of January after a 12-month experiment. Officials enlisted 2,000 drivers throughout the state to test pay-by-mile alternatives to the traditional pay-at-the-pump model, with some participants engaging in “no-tech” methods such as reporting odometer readings and others being equipped with mileage meters using GPS or smartphone apps.
High-tech models would be most accurate in determining how much each driver should pay; a monitor or an app could unobtrusively track mileage and calculate a driver’s tax. But they also present some problems. A survey of study participants indicates that privacy is a primary concern for taxpayers, and more than half of those in the study chose options that eschewed GPS. People are understandably leery about government officials having details of their travels, and similar tests in Oregon have led the state to require that all GPS data be destroyed within 30 days.
Privacy concerns might prove to be the biggest roadblock as Washington and other states ponder how to change the collection of taxes for roads. But changes are necessary. High-efficiency vehicles are good for the environment and help curb emissions, but they also allow drivers to avoid helping to pay for the road they use. As much as we like low-emission cars, they put just as much wear and tear on the roads as other vehicles.
Meanwhile, we must mention that Congress has been negligent in failing to increase the federal gas tax since 1993. The rate of 18.4 cents per gallon has about 60 percent of the purchasing power it wielded a quarter-century ago, and the nation’s infrastructure has suffered as a result.
That, however, is a discussion for another time; for now, we are focusing on the future of Washington’s gas tax. Results from the pilot project will be collected and forwarded to the Legislature before the 2020 session, and lawmakers will begin what likely will be an elongated process of adjusting how the state pays for roads. With nearly 10 percent of passenger vehicles expected to be electric or hybrid by 2025, governments will soon see a noticeable decline in gas tax revenue at a time when an increasing population is demanding more and better roads.
In considering the alternatives, lawmakers should heed the public’s privacy concerns but also must make a case for why the system needs to be adjusted. Any new plan should be phased in and accompanied by sound reasoning for why changes are being made. The eventual elimination of the gas tax and lower prices at the pump will be a good place to start that sales pitch.
