Oregon launches program to tax drivers by the mile
By Dan
Springer
Published July 03, 2015
David Hastings is a rare
American. This long-time hybrid car owner from Oregon wants to pay higher taxes
for roads and bridges and says the current 30 cents per gallon state gas tax
barely affects him.
"I've been free-loading
on the highways for 20 years driving electric cars or hybrid cars, getting at
least 40 miles to the gallon. So I haven't been paying my share," Hastings
said.
Now, Hastings will pay more
thanks to OReGO -- the first pay-by-the-mile program in the U.S.
Oregon’s Department of
Transportation has been working on it for 15 years as a way to eventually
replace the gas tax, which has been flat due to an influx of high mileage
vehicles and people driving less.
Right now the program is
voluntary and being capped at 5,000 participants, but an ODOT official told Fox
News the ultimate goal is to make it mandatory and change the way states pay
for roads -- forever.
"We're trying to make
up for a growing deficit, really, because inflation's eating away at our
ability to buy asphalt and rebar and the things we need to maintain the
roads," said Tom Fuller of the Oregon Department of Transportation.
According to a national
usage fee alliance, 28 states are in various stages of following down the same
road. However, there are also privacy concerns. Two of the three OReGO systems
track and store a car’s every move.
"To put a GPS monitor
in everybody's car, the government already knows too much about us as it
is," Jeff Kruse, a Republican lawmaker told Fox News.
Others are raising questions
about the cost. Getting the gas tax is cheap, but OReGO vendors will eat up 40
cents of every dollar collected, and for those not used to paying any gas
tax, it could be a whole new sticker shock – every month.
Jeff Allen, of “Drive
Oregon,” supports the one and a half cent per mile usage fee -- to a point.
"We need to be
subsidizing and incentivizing electric cars and not putting more taxes or fees
on them, not discouraging people from buying them in any way," Allen said.
Dan Springer joined Fox News
Channel (FNC) in August 2001 as a Seattle-based correspondent.
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