Out of some perverse fear that the gas tax revenue spigots will clam shut, Oregon is testing a GPS system for the impending mileage tax (Seeking Fiscal Health ...):
The Oregon experiment is among several efforts across the country designed to increase state revenue for road maintenance and construction without raising gasoline taxes. Oregon's examination of a "vehicle miles traveled tax" comes at time when many states are facing depleted transportation budgets, chiefly because of inflation.
Call me a Luddite (did I just hear someone call me a Luddite?) but sometimes what sounds cool isn't so cool. Here are a couple of problems:
- The aggregate cost of the GPS devices could be high
- Those who buy fuel efficient cars won't be happy about getting stuck with a tax they tried to avoid with good behavior
Also, drivers who hate gas taxes aren't likely to celebrate taxing miles.
And just for the record, environmental economists like gas taxes because they can be used to correct negative externality problems (i.e., reduce pollution) not for their generation of revenue at a relatively low deadweight loss.
