CBO Sees Benefits in Taxing Motorists Based on Miles Driven | CNSnews.com
(CNSNews.com) – A new Congressional Budget Office study says taxing motorists based on the number of miles they drive would be a fair and “efficient” way to charge motorists for the real cost of using the nation’s highways. “Vehicle-miles traveled” taxes (or VMT taxes) also would provide a strong incentive for people to drive less.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood floated the idea of a VMT tax one month after President Obama took office, but Obama’s spokesman immediately shot it down. “It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters in February 2009.
But that was then.
The CBO study, released this week, says the federal government pays in part for about 25 percent of the nation’s highways, which carry about 85 percent of all road traffic. Right now, federal spending on those highways is funded mainly by taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, but those taxes do not raise enough money to support either the current federal spending on highways — or the higher spending levels that some transportation planners advocate.
The CBO said most of the costs of using a highway, including pavement damage, congestion, accidents, and noise, are tied more closely to the number of miles traveled than to the amount of fuel consumed.
via CBO Sees Benefits in Taxing Motorists Based on Miles Driven | CNSnews.com.
