Gas Tax! It's your fault. (home, maintenance, taxes)

[Curmudgeon]

On this day in 1919, Oregon levied a 1¢ per gallon tax on gasoline becoming the first state to do so. Now it's 49.47¢.

Thanks, Oregon!

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

On this day in 1919, Oregon levied a 1¢ per gallon tax on gasoline becoming the first state to do so. Now it's 49.47¢.

Thanks, Oregon!

It's because we got tired of the wagon ruts left by the pioneer wagons and decided we needed a road fund.

[mrwibble]

Isn't it going to be replaced by a road usage fee to stop all that freeloading by Tesla drivers?

[PNW-type-gal]

At some point it will likely be replaced by a weight/mile tax, given all the alternate fuel vehicles being produced. Which makes sense - if you view the gas tax as a tax meant for road repair and maintenance - as the damage to the roads is strongly related to axle weight.

If you posit a "road damage unit", then an axle (which is a stand-in for total vehicle weight) that weighs "2" units does 2 to the 4th power, or 16 units or damage. An axle that weighs 4 units does 256 units of damage and an axle that weighs 8 units does 4096 units of damage. So a 4-fold increase in weight from 2 units to 8 units does 256 times more damage to to the road.

[bler144]

Why do you think it's likely to be replaced by a weight/mile tax?

While that system is in use for some commercial vehicles already, expanding it to all passenger vehicles seems like it would be a major pain not only for residents, but for the state to administer and enforce.

[mrwibble]

In case anyone hasn't seen the proposed program; OReGO | A new way to fund roads for all Oregonians.

[bler144]

I hadn't seen that, thanks. The state Senate sure is big on demo/pilot programs of late.

Assuming our ownership of personal vehicles is proportional to population, OR likely has something on the order of 3.1 million registered personal motorized vehicles.

Hopefully a pilot program of 5,000 (1/10 of 1% of all vehicles) is enough to highlight how burdensome this would be to administer at full scale.

Even if you grant there's some marginal "fairness" benefit to such a system (either straight mile or weight/mile) vs. a flat per gallon tax, it's hard to fathom it's worth the extra inefficiency.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by bler144

I hadn't seen that, thanks. The state Senate sure is big on demo/pilot programs of late.

Assuming our ownership of personal vehicles is proportional to population, OR likely has something on the order of 3.1 million registered personal motorized vehicles.

Hopefully a pilot program of 5,000 (1/10 of 1% of all vehicles) is enough to highlight how burdensome this would be to administer at full scale.

Even if you grant there's some marginal "fairness" benefit to such a system (either straight mile or weight/mile) vs. a flat per gallon tax, it's hard to fathom it's worth the extra inefficiency.

California's considering it. But that's California!

[mrwibble]

Originally Posted by bler144

Hopefully a pilot program of 5,000 (1/10 of 1% of all vehicles) is enough to highlight how burdensome this would be to administer at full scale.

They've been throwing around the idea since 2002 as far as I recall. One idea was for gas stations to be fitted with devices that would read how many miles you'd done since your last fill and charge you for the miles there.

The issue this time is how to tell which miles were driven in Oregon and which ones weren't. I'm not sure I want a GPS enabled black box in my cars tracking where I've been every mile I've driven. I'm also not thrilled at the prospect of non-Oregon residents getting tax-free gas and free use of the roads.

Lastly, in my home country, drivers of fuel efficient and low/no emissions vehicles are given various breaks as encouragement. Those include lower, or even no, registration fees, vehicle taxes, exemption from city-center congestion charges, etc. The fact that Oregon is looking to do the opposite seems a little regressive to me.

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by mrwibble

Lastly, in my home country, drivers of fuel efficient and low/no emissions vehicles are given various breaks as encouragement. Those include lower, or even no, registration fees, vehicle taxes, exemption from city-center congestion charges, etc. The fact that Oregon is looking to do the opposite seems a little regressive to me.

I presume your home country is in the UK (why? Wibble, which is something I learned from watching Blackadder). Per the Wiki:

From 23 March 2011 the UK duty rate for the road fuels unleaded petrol, diesel, biodiesel and bioethanol is GB£0.5795 per litre (£2.63 per imperial gallon or £2.19 per U.S. gallon).[9]

Value Added Tax at 20% is also charged on the price of the fuel and on the duty. An additional vehicle excise duty, depending on a vehicle's CO2 production per kilometre, which depends directly on fuel consumption, is also levied.

£2.19 = $3.42 which is more than the current price of a gallon of gas.

Oregon's gas tax is $0.495 (which includes the $0.18 federal tax)

Presume we currently pay $2.50 for regular, then:
$2.50 - 0.495 (to subtract the Fed/state tax out) + 3.42 (to add the UK tax in) = $5.42
$5.42 + 20% VAT = a total of $6.50 a gallon.

The UK has plenty of headroom in that tax to use it to reward drivers.