Ohio leading the way to a green future

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Ohio leading the way to a green future
14
Wed, 01-28-2009 - 8:02pm

It looks like Ohio plans to lead the way toward a greener future. The plan is to reduce or eliminate the per gallon gas tax, and implement a per mile tax. This will help the state recover costs from more energy efficient vehicles. Looks like Ohio is leading the way toward a greener future. We can all hope a federal mileage tax will eventually be implemented, to compensate for any decreased revenue due to higher mileage vehicles.

The link has an image, showing an example of a SUV paying about twice as much as a more energy efficient vehicle in taxes. The new plan could fix this inequity, and help us all be more green.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/01/ohio_studies_vehiclemiles_tax.html

Ohio studies vehicle-miles tax to replace or supplement fuel tax

Posted by Karen Farkas/Plain Dealer Reporter January 23, 2009 03:00AM

Imagine being taxed on the number of miles you drive instead of the amount of gasoline you buy.

Oregon has tried it. North Carolina is thinking about it, and Ohio is exploring an idea to replace or supplement the state's existing fuel tax with a vehicle miles tax.

The Vehicle Miles of Travel tax is being hailed as an innovative way to generate transportation revenue by states that have seen gasoline tax dollars stagnate because of people driving less and cars becoming more fuel efficient.

A task force that studied Ohio's transportation needs said that a mileage tax has the potential to raise revenue and that the state should look into the idea.

"Most people on the task force agreed that we need to invest more in our infrastructure, but if you want to do that, how do you raise funds in a fair and equitable way?" said David Beach, who was on the state panel. "With new technology, it becomes feasible to have different ways to collect taxes."

The task force's main recommendation for increasing revenue is to raise Ohio's current 28-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax by 13 cents to pay for roads, bridges and transportation. But Gov. Ted Strickland has said he would not support a tax increase.

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Bonnie Teeuwen, deputy director of the Ohio Department of Transportation district that includes Cuyahoga County, said she has volunteered the district to try out a mileage tax.

And transportation officials for the federal government and more than two dozen states, including Ohio, have contacted Oregon's Department of Transportation -- considered the leader in mileage tax issues.

The Transportation Department and Oregon State University tested a Road User Fee in a pilot project in 2006.

A dashboard display, a GPS receiver and antenna, a mileage counter unit and a short-range-radio-frequency antenna were placed in 285 vehicles. The counter tallied miles a person drove in the state.

Two Portland gasoline stations were equipped with mileage-reading devices. So when a driver pulled up to the gas pump, a radio wave transmitted information from the car to the pump, which sent that information to a computer in the gas station office. The driver's receipt from the pump showed the gas tax was removed and the mileage tax added. The driver paid the amount due.

Under the pilot program, drivers were charged 1.2 cents a mile, which was considered equivalent to the state's 24-cents-a-gallon gas tax rate. That amount could be higher to raise more revenue. There could be an additional cost to people who drive less fuel-efficient cars, like SUVs.

"For the consumer it was seamless. It was exactly the same as pulling up to the pump and getting a receipt that had the mileage fee and the gas tax fee, with the deduction of the gas tax fee," said Shelly Snow, spokeswoman for the Oregon Transportation Department, which has studied the mileage tax since 2001.

Oregon's project, which received $2.1 million from the Federal Highway Administration and $770,000 from the state, ended in 2007, but officials decided further study was warranted. Gov. Ted Kulongoski included a proposal in the new state budget to fund a program to look into how a mileage tax could be added, Snow said.

"We found the concept was feasible but there are several key things that would have to be done or researched further before anything like this could be put into practice," she said.

Potential obstacles: costs, managing data

Imposing the tax through gas stations worked, but the cost would be too high to retrofit all vehicles with the equipment, said Snow. The gear could be put in new vehicles by manufacturers.

"That's one of the reasons this concept is still years down the road," she said.

Another obstacle is how to gather the information and collect the mileage fee at a minimal cost to the state and without causing headaches for motorists, such as filling out paperwork.

Ohio's 28-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax pays for road and bridge repairs. ODOT receives about 17 cents of the tax, or about $1 billion a year in revenue. The remainder of the tax goes to counties, cities, townships and agencies.

"When it was first instituted, the gas tax really was a good way of assessing a user fee to the roadway system," said Scott Varner, ODOT's deputy director of communications. "The thought was the more gas you use, the more driving you were doing and the more roads you used."

But as fuel-efficient vehicles were developed, there was a disparity between vehicles that got good gas mileage and those that didn't, Varner said.

"It is a very fascinating idea to somehow find a way to better track how much someone truly uses the roadways," he said.

Beach, director of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's GreenCityBlueLake Institute, which promotes environmental programs and sustainability, said that as a driver, he doesn't know if he would support a mileage tax until more details were available.

"I wouldn't want a mileage-based gas tax if it meant I had to pay the same for my small, fuel-efficient car as someone with a big gas guzzler," Beach said.

Beach said that instead of coming up with more taxes, the state should work to break the cycle of automobile dependence.

"The problem with both a volume-based and mileage-based tax is that it gives ODOT an incentive to promote more driving to obtain more revenue," he said. "We need to develop a more balanced transportation system that gives people more choices."

Monitors would create privacy issues, Ohioan says

Robert Brown, treasurer of Case Western Reserve University and a member of Ohio's transportation task force, said placing transponders in cars raises several serious issues.

"There are some privacy issues because essentially somebody or some machine somewhere needs to kind of know where your car is," said Brown, a former assistant director of ODOT. "Also, how do you ensure that if a transponder is built into every vehicle that it is not tampered with? There are an awful lot of policy issues for people to grapple with."

Brown said he supports increasing the gas tax instead.

In the past year, department officials in Oregon have traveled the country giving presentations about the mileage tax, including one to the transportation task force in Ohio, said Snow, of the Oregon Transportation Department.

"It is clear a new source of revenue other than gas taxes is needed to help states repair, maintain and build roads and bridges," she said.

A mileage tax might not be enacted, she said, "but it might bring other things about and open people's minds to something else."

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2007
Wed, 01-28-2009 - 9:02pm

I don't see this happening.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-04-2009
Wed, 01-28-2009 - 9:09pm
I think you are correct.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Wed, 01-28-2009 - 9:14pm
This presents Ohio with a wonderful opportunity to add a mileage tax surcharge to any toll roads and bridges. It would also allow Ohio to charge for mileage during emissions tests.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2007
Thu, 01-29-2009 - 8:27am

There are plenty of roads in Ohio that truckers, visitors and residence

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-01-2008
Thu, 01-29-2009 - 9:35am

I think that it is a bad idea. A person might have a small car that doesn't use much gas but needs to travel 30 miles a day to keep a job, would be taxed more than someone with a huge SUV that lives a mile away from their job. I think it discriminates against people that are not as fortunate to live close to work, who cannot find a job closer to their home.

The whole idea is to use LESS gas and a person with an SUV can certainly purchase a smaller car, but the person who needs to drive a long distance can't. There has to be another way!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Thu, 01-29-2009 - 9:49am
Bad idea. It would be better to tax cars yearly as property, as they do in Ct., I complain about this tax but it's fairer than a mileage tax.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2007
Thu, 01-29-2009 - 10:21am
Here, you pay tax on your drivers licenses and your car tags.
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Thu, 01-29-2009 - 10:23am

I'm certain Connecticut can come up with a mileage tax in addition to the vehicle property and gas tax. The Connecticut vehicle property tax is a town / city based tax, not a state tax.

A mileage tax would be a state tax to help offset the costs to the state of higher MPG vehicles. A federal mileage tax could also help.

Many people choose to have long commutes, and seek to bypass high gas taxes by using high MPG vehicles. This is not thinking green. A mileage tax will help people consider length of commute as a factor when deciding on where to live and work.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Thu, 01-29-2009 - 10:26am

Maybe we need a federally mandated annual emissions test implemented in every state. To assure vehicles aren't excessively polluting. At the time vehicles are tested, a mileage tax could be determined, maybe a federal and state mileage tax.

CO2 consumption could be estimated, both for mileage driven and for the CO2 required to manufacture the vehicles divided by the vehicles expected lifetime. This way drivers could pay their fair CO2 load.

A new high mileage tax would discourage excessive CO2 consumption and could also help build infrastructure.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Thu, 01-29-2009 - 10:50am

We pay those too. This property tax is assessed by the value of your car. Newer or more expensive cars pay more than a older or cheaper car. Makes you think twice before buying a new car.


You should let them know it's not being driven then you wont be charged for late payment..... At least this is how it worked in Calif.

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