Federal Commission Endorses Higher Gas Tax And Miles-Driven Tax

[M_Smith]

Federal Commission Endorses Higher Gas Tax And Miles-Driven Tax
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A federal commission has asked Congress to raise the gas tax and start charging drivers based on how much they drive. Saying "the current federal motor fuels tax is unsustainable over the long term," the 15-member National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission called on Congress to raise the current 18.4 cent gas tax per gallon by 10 cents, and to index the tax for inflation.
Saying there exists a "significant and widening gap between federal investment and the nation?s transportation infrastructure needs," the Commission estimates that by 2035, current gas taxes will generate only $32 billion needed to meet required investments costing over $100 billion per year. The Highway Trust Fund is facing a "near-term insolvency crisis."
The study also notes that isolated stimulus packages do little to address long-term structural funding gaps. "For instance," the study says, "a stimulus package that includes $40 billion for highway and transit infrastructure, while important in addressing the short-term economic crisis, will pay for only about three months of the identi?ed annual national funding gap to maintain and improve the system?a gap that repeats itself and compounds year after year."
The Commission's solution is to institute a user fee by taxing vehicle miles driven.

The Commission cast a wide net, reviewed many funding alternatives, and concluded that indeed the most viable approach to ef?ciently fund federal investment in surface transportation in the medium to long run will be a user charge system based more directly on miles driven (and potentially on factors such as time of day, type of road, and ve- hicle weight and fuel economy) rather than indirectly on fuel consumed.
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Last week White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that a tax on vehicle miles driven "is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration." In response, Commission Chairman Robert Atkinson told Bloomberg that ?the White House was somewhat premature. It?s absolutely critical that we look at it. The members of Congress that are committed to a robust transportation system are certainly very aware of the risks of that system not having as much money as it needs because of the stated policy of the Obama administration.?
Congress will need to extend the surface transportation law containing the gas tax before it expires on September 30.
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