Mileage based road tax

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

Newspapers report that Iowans would accept a road tax that was not based on fuel but on mileage.  Electric and natural gas powered vehicles would travel for free under current rules.  One proposal is a GPS like instrument that tracked miles.  Of coures, they promise it would track nothing else.

Would you like this proposal?

One thing I wonder about is the jammers and spoofers.  Truckers who want to avoid revealing their location, rental car drivers, people who are worried that they are being bugged are some of the people who are buying and using illegal GPS jammers which are readily available online.  Some pilots are reporting lose of GPS signal.  You don't want that when you are descending to land in a fog.  Even if one did not use such a jammer, being next to one in traffic might have the same effect.

Are you ready to have essentiall a tachograph to hand in to the state taxing authority to determine your road taxes?

http://www.easterniowabusiness.com/2011/03/17/ui-study-finds-replacing-motor-fuel-tax-wont-be-simple...

[SouthWestOhio]

Jim the GPS trackers seem a little over the top. A simple odometer read when renewing the tags should suffice.  Commercial users would look for ways to beat it but I'm sure there has to be some way to keep most of em  honest. There will always be scofflaws no matter what system is used.

[k-289]

:: Commercial vehicles already report the miles in every state they operate in---pay federal highway use tax;which was suppose to be used for road work:--:

[SouthWestOhio]

k I thought that use tax was a flat fee, not based on mileage. Please enlighten me.

[k-289]

Federal highway use is $550 + and Pro _rate a single power unit is around $2000---then seperate states have seperate milage fees- plus personal property taxes even if you don't reside in that state--now some are trying to put a corperate operating tax if you unload or reload in a state other than your base plate state ---fees galore at every turn ---also a lot of city and county DOT's are checking for rig infraction and getting very picky-----I'll finish with a rig getting between 5 and 7 MPG a lot of tax is collected on a rig going 125,000 miles a year----20,000+ gallons X state and federal tax ==lots of $$$$$--there again the truck traffic and auto traffic generate lots of $$$$---lots of it exit's the highway fund into the general fund----and also the residents of Indiana got to sell their toll roads to an off shore corp. if I'm not mistaken ---that one really puzzle's me ? ? The cost of running an 80'000 rig down the road now is @ $1.25/mile  + depriciation + upkeep + insurance + license---see alot  of entry -then exit -in this business ? 

[SouthWestOhio]

So the fed rate is based on weight. A few states have a mileage fee which is in addition to the tax on fuel.

So I guess the question remains would you rather have to pay the tax on fuel or a mileage tax?

[idalivered]

i was watching an infomercial yesterday about propane conversions for cars and pickups. my first thought was "how does the state collect the road use tax if i fill my own tank at home?" I paid $1.30 last fall and it is $1.70 now. mileage is comparable with less pollution. cheap driving!

[kraft-t]

I like the current method pretty well. You pay at the pump and you can't avoid that. Truckers that haul freight pass their cost on to consumers of their service. We have a few Natural gas cars running around in Tulsa and the people that have them love them. I would think the best way to tax them is on license fees.

[k-289]

Most states make you declare- N-gas- gsaoline or diesel--on the vehicle---propane is clean--less oil changes