I don’t know if George Hoffer, a VCU professor of economics, has ever read the Bacon’s Rebellion blog, but his ideas about transportation funding are very similar to mine. Maybe it’s a case of great minds thinking alike. Not only has he advocated a road-funding scheme for Virginia that is nearly identical to mine, but he has added some subtle improvements. Read his column in today’s Times-Dispatch and weep – – for joy.
Hoffer recognizes that the gasoline tax is living on borrowed time. “By the 2016 model year,” he writes, “the average fuel efficiency for all the new cars and light trucks will have increased from the current 25 miles per gallon to 35.5.” In its place, he recommends a “highway user tax system,” the centerpiece of which is a variable charge based upon the number of vehicle miles driven the previous month.
Replacing the current 17.5-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax would require a charge equivalent to 1.1 cents per mile. (I have not double-checked his arithmetic, but I assume that it is accurate.)
Think about it: The IRS allowance for business travel is $.50 per mile. The per-mile tax would be equivalent to about two percent of the total cost of car ownership! Hoffer proposes dedicating the revenues to maintenance, as I do, so it should be easy to justify raising the charge an extra penny per mile (or whatever is needed) to pay for the privilege of driving upon safe, well-maintained roads, including the cost of fixing our backlog of decrepit bridges. (Alas, Hoffer also suggests that the fee could be raised to cover the cost of new construction, a point with which I disagree.)
Hoffer would modify the base charge as follows: a lower fee for travel on unpaid roads and a higher fee for heavier vehicles. (I had never considered an adjustment for unpaved roads.)
Hoffer also backs the idea of a separate charge based upon the number of miles driven in a congested area. Writes Hoffer: “This tax/user fee is designed to better utilize existing roads and to cover the cost of capital for new roads where excess demand exists.” Exactly.
Finally, Hoffer explains in his column how the GPS satellite-based billing system would work. He also has some ideas on how to deal with the problem of taxing out-of-state drivers.
