AP | Gov. Ted Kulongoski says he will ask the Legislature to begin “a path to transition away from the gas tax as the central funding source for transportation” and to replace it with a mileage tax boosted by satellite technology.
A year ago, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced it had demonstrated that a mileage tax could work.
The proposal is part of a transportation-related bill he has filed for the upcoming session.
“As Oregonians drive less and demand more fuel-efficient vehicles, it is increasingly important that the state find a new way, other than the gas tax, to finance our transportation system,” according to the policies he has outlined online.
Kulongoski proposes to continue the work of the special task force that came up with and tested the idea of a mileage tax to replace the gas tax, the Albany Democrat-Herald reported Sunday.
The governor wants the task force “to partner with auto manufacturers to refine technology that would enable Oregonians to pay for the transportation system based on how many miles they drive.”
The online outline adds: “The governor is committed to ensuring that rural Oregon is not adversely affected and that privacy concerns are addressed.”
Critics had worried that the technology could be used to track where vehicles go, not just how far they travel, and that this information could be stored by the government.
In interviews with the Democrat-Herald and others, James Whitty, the ODOT official in charge of the project, tried to assure the public that that was not in the plans.
The task force’s final report came out in November 2007. It was based largely on a field test in which about 300 motorists in the Portland area and two service stations took part over 10 months, ending in March 2007.
A GPS-based system kept track of the in-state mileage driven by the volunteers.
When they bought fuel, a device in their vehicles was read, and they paid 1.2 cents a mile and got a refund of the state gas tax of 24 cents a gallon.
“The concept requires no transmission of vehicle travel locations,” the report said.
The report said that under the Oregon concept of the program, “ODOT would have no involvement in developing the on-vehicle devices, installing them in vehicles, maintaining them or having any other access to them except, perhaps, in situations involving tampering or similar fee evasion activities.”
Equipment for the Oregon test was developed at Oregon State University. Whitty said last year it might take about $20 million to establish that the mileage tax is commercially viable.
Eventually, GPS devices would have to be built into cars, and fueling stations would have to be similarly equipped. The gas tax would stay in force - Kulongoski has proposed that it be raised 2 cents - for vehicles not equipped to pay the mileage tax.
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