Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax Study Versus Action

Seven years ago I blogged about California’s new legislation to study a vehical miles traveled (VMT) tax as an alternative to the gasoline excise tax (10/4/14 post). Oregon had already been studying one.

In July 2015, a Senate Finance Committee working group – working on tax reform, discussed a VMT in its report on infrastructure in reference to issues with the gasoline excise tax and Highway Trust Fund. Basically, with people driving more fuel efficient cars including electric cars that don’t use any gasoline, not enough money goes to the HTF. And the gasoline excise tax has been 18.4 cents per mile since 1993!  It is not adjusted for inflation and hasn’t been increased. The HTF has needed General Fund contributions since at least 2008 (the 2015 Senate report notes that over $65 billion had been transferred since 2008).

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