Volunteers Needed for Pay-By-The-Mile Gas Tax Pilot Project

A lot of people complain about how high our gas prices are compared to other states. Many people even make the trip to Idaho to fill up to save some money. According to KIRO TV, that could change though, with a pilot project the state of Washington will begin in fall of 2017 to test a system of charging drivers for the number of miles traveled, instead of charging them a gas tax. And you can sign up to possibly part of the pilot.

For the pilot period, drivers will only track miles and will not be paying taxes based on that mileage.

The current state gas tax is 49.4 cents per gallon of gas. Because there are more fuel efficient cars now on the market, drivers are buying less gas, which means the state is collecting less in gas taxes that go to maintain our roads.

For the purpose of the simulation next year, the Washington State Transportation Commission is looking at a 2.4-cent tax per mile traveled. Compared to the amount of gas consumed, this would add up to the same amount an average driver would pay in state gas taxes.

Up to 2,000 volunteers will be asked to participate in the pilot either by tracking odometer readings, downloading an odometer app or by installing a device in cars to track miles.

If you are interested in taking part in the pilot, go to this website: For those interested in becoming part of the pilot program, go to this website; www.waroadusagecharge.org and scroll to the bottom to sign up (after reading all the info of course). I did. If I am chosen, I will of course report back on how it works.

For their news piece, KIRO talked to drivers on the impact. Here's what they found out:

• Bill Jones drives a 1986 Volkswagen Vanagon about 900 miles a month. His estimated monthly state gas tax would be $22.23. If charged by mile, he would pay $21.60 per month.
• Jaimi Tapia commutes from Tacoma to Seattle every day in a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt. She pays about $51.38 per month in state gas taxes. If charged on miles traveled, she would pay $32.64 per month.
  
  
• Owners of hybrid or electric vehicles would pay more under this plan. Cindy Gruber only fills up her Prius once a month. She’s paying less than $6 a month in state gas taxes, while she might pay more than $21 per month if charged per mile.

So far, Oregon is the only state to charge drivers by mile rather than by gas tax. 

WA Gas Tax Increases July 1

Washington State is about to get the second highest gas tax in the country when an increase of 4.9 cents kicks in on July 1. Added to the current tax, that will increase the state tax on gas to 49.4 cents per gallon, second highest behind Pennsylvania.

The hike is the final installment of a nearly 12 cent increase, part of the state legislature's Connecting Washington package approved last year.


The money will go to fund a series of specific projects over the next 15 years across the state, including I90 interchanges at Medical Lake and Geiger, completion of the North Spokane Corridor, and widening of I90 from Barker to Harvard roads.

Vehicle registration fees also go up July 1, from $15 to $35, depending on the weight of your vehicle. Registration for electric cars will also increase; from $100 to $150.

10 Traffic Myths Debunked

One of our GIS analysts opened an umbrella in my office the other day. I jokingly reminded him that he just brought bad luck on himself. He told me that's an old wive's tale and that he was going to bring a ladder into my office to walk under. It turns out that there are many, many old wive's tales, also known as myths, in the transportation world. Citylab put together a post on 10 Tired Traffic Myths that you can read here. 

It includes:

• More roads mean less traffic
• More transit means less traffic
• Bike lanes make traffic worse
• A wider road is a safer road
• The next lane over is moving faster
• There's no downside to cheap gas
• Drivers pay the full cost of road maintenance
• And more!

Read the article to find out why these are myths. 

Report Suggests 400% Gas Tax Increase for Hawaii

I've heard a few people complaining about the 11.5 cent gas tax increase recently signed into law in Washington. People are always going to complain when things cost them more. But this might make you feel a little better. Maybe. A new report suggests that Hawaii raise it's gas tax- by 400%. Yes, you read that right.

Hawaii drivers already pay the fourth highest gasoline taxes in the country. According to Hawaii News, a consulting firm hired to look at ways to reduce the amount of fuel used by 385,000 gallons a year, came up with one suggest to raise the gas tax 85 cents per gallon!

It's just one of 11 proposals the firm came up with to reach the miles driven reduction goals and they say it would definitely discourage driving.

The state has sent the report to dozens of energy executives, state officials, regulators and other stakeholders. If there's a lot of support for a gas tax plan, it could become a part of the state's energy policy. But officials said that's still a long way off and state lawmakers have indicated that they don't seem to think it's realistic.

Gas Tax Increase Passes State Senate

A controversial package of taxes and fees which would raise gas taxes by almost 12 cents over three years passed the Senate Monday on a 27-22 vote.

By a much larger margin, senators then approved a list of $15 billion worth of projects those taxes and fees would support. Almost $1 billion of them are in the Spokane area.

The bill now goes to the House.

The Spokesman-Review looks at the projects on the table and how local legislators voted.

2015 State Transportation Funding Initiatives

Washington isn't the only state fighting to have transportation funding legislation considered. Twenty-one other states are in the same boat, with more expected throughout the year.

The staff at the Transportation Investment Advocate have already tracked 48 transportation funding bills introduced in 2015, with over 70 bills in total pending legislative action. That's a lot of attention on transportation!

Eleven states are currently considering increasing their gas taxes, Michigan voters will decide on a ballot measure that would result in a transportation funding increase, and three states are currently considering legislation to protect their transportation funds. And there's lots more.
Here's a quick summary of everything that's happening from TransportationInvestment.com.

States With Highest and Lowest Gas Prices

I hear people complain often about Washington having "one of the highest" gas taxes in the country. But is that really true?

USA Today tallied the states with the highest and lowest gas taxes and you might be surprised by some of the results. You can check them out here.

Editorial Board Says To Look Beyond The Gas Tax For Transportation Funding

An editorial in today's Spokesman-Review lauds Governor Jay Inslee for his proposal on taxing industrial polluters to pay for transportation. While the Editorial Board says states they don't feel the proposal is a good solution, they do say it at least moves discussion of the state's transportation needs beyond reliance on the gas tax.

They also talk about Washington Treasurer James McIntire's suggestion of dedicating half of gas tax revenues to bond financing for the most urgent projects and the rest to street and ferry system upkeep. But they don't like that idea much either. So what's their suggestion Find out here.

WA State Transportation Commission Looking At Pay-By-The-Mile Tax

KXLY News yesterday ran a story on the Washington State Legislature's proposal to test out a pay by the mile tax within the next couple of years that would tax drivers for every mile they drive on public roads.

At first, it would be a pilot program but if succesful, as the pilot was in Oregon, it would eventually replace our current per-gallon gas tax altogether.  When KXLY asked watchers to weigh in on the possibility, the comments were overwhelmingly negative. Some sample comments are below- click to see them full size. There were a handful of respondents who pointed out that the roads are in terrible shape and we need a new way to pay to fix them. With cars more fuel efficient, the availability of alternative-fuel vehicles, and more people using public transit, the money raised by the gas tax is dropping and isn't enough to cover our basic needs.

For the most part though, people who responded to the KXLY article called the idea "insane," "communism," and "big brother."

Read the article (and the comments if you dare) here then feel free to let us know what your take is.

Oregon Pay-By-The-Mile Program Appears to be Working

Well, here we sit, waiting for Congress to do something about the dwindling Highway Trust Fund. Starting in August, the money in the fund starts being rationed and after it runs out- who knows? What we do know is that our transportation infrastructure isn't fixing itself, so some new method of funding maintenance and preservation projects is imperative.

The problem is that the Highway Trust Fund is funded by the gas tax. With people driving less, cars being more efficient on fuel these days and the infrastructure aging and crumbling faster than we can fix it, the tax doesn't supply as much money for repairs and maintenance as is needed.

Every state has been struggling with this for a while now and many are trying experimental funding methods to try to solve the problem at the state-level. While many are looking at raising the gas tax, Oregon has been trying out a mileage-based funding system. And it seems to be working. A new report on the pilot program says revenue from it exceeded expected gas tax earnings by 28 percent.

This CityLab article looks at why the program appears to be working so far, and why it will help change our behavior if it goes country-wide.

Legislators Warn Not To Get Hopes Up For New Money For North Spokane Corridor

It wasn't the message business, civic and political leaders wanted to hear when they traveled to Olympia last week for the annual Greater Spokane Incorporated trip to network with legislature members, but they were told not to get their hopes up for new money for the North Spokane Corridor (NSC).

The legislators told the group (including SRTC's Executive Directory who attended) that the chances of passing a transportation package to fund major projects using a gas tax are slim to none. They blamed politics, problems at the Washington State Deparment of Transportation and a lack of support by Spokane Republican leaders.

Others said any kind of package like that would end up on the ballot, where voters would reject it. Why? The Spokesman-Review looks at the issue.

Western Washington Problems Put A Kink In Gas Tax Talks

The 520 Floating Bridge

Washington State lawmakers last week said that issues with the State Highway 520 bridge and Alaskan Way Viaduct replacements — including whether Seattle should pay for tunnel cost overruns — will make discussions on potentially raising the gas tax even more difficult.

Negotiations ended in December without settling on a new tax package to fund transportation projects. Now, it was announced last Wednesday that another $170 million is needed to complete the Highway 520 bridge replacement over Lake Washington due to a design error. Tunnel digging for the Alaskan Way Viaduct has also been hung up for over a month, which could mean cost overruns. This has many lawmakers from the east and central parts of the state worried that taxpayers are going to end up footing the bill for facilities they don't even use.

KATU.com has more on how this could throw a wrench in gas tax talks.

Taxpayers In What State Pay The Most in Road Taxes and Fees?

If you think you pay a lot in taxes to keep up our state's roads, take comfort in that you don't pay as much as the folks in Delaware. Drivers there pay a bigger share of the state and local costs of keeping up roads than those in any other state, according to a new report from the Tax Foundation.

Tolls, state gas taxes and fees for licenses and registrations covered 79 cents out of every dollar Delaware spent on roads in 2011, the latest year for which data is available.

How do northwest states, and all other states compare? Stateline has the numbers.

How To Overhaul the Gas Tax?

With transportation infrastructure falling apart before our eyes and little money to fix it, there has been much talk recently about modernizing the gas tax. It's been at the same rate for two decades, at 18.4 cents a gallon for regular gasoline.

The big debate in recent years has been how to bring a tax increase into the 21st century. Lawmakers worry that just jacking it up would be extremely unpopular with taxpayers right now and are looking for a more equitable way to spread the cost, such as paying based on how much you drive.

The New York Times weighs in on the debate in an editorial, suggesting a system based on something called a "ton mile." Here's the article.

Lots of Discussion, But No Conclusion, On State Transportation Package

A proposed transportation funding package that would raise the gas tax by 11.5 cents over three years and spend $12.3 billion on transportation projects and maintenance of existing structures warranted four hours of discussion yesterday by the Senate Transportation Committee but still no conclusion on moving it forward to the Senate in a special legislative session.
 
Dozens of representatives of businesses, social service groups and local governments testified on the plan at the meeting, including representatives from Cheney, who feel the SR 904 widening project should have been included in the proposal.

The Spokesman-Review has the story.

Questions and Answers About Oregon's New Vehicle Miles Traveled Fee

This summer, Oregon’s legislature passed a bill creating a vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) fee. This is a big step, as a fee like this has been discussed on and off for years as an alternative to gas taxes, which are bringing in less revenue as people drive less.

 

The creator of the program, Jim Whitty from the Oregon Department of Transportation, was in Washington, D.C. recently to talk to Congress and others about the program. While there, a reporter from D.C. Streets Blog interviewed him on the privacy concerns associated with tracking how many miles someone drives, who is taking part in the program and if everyone will eventually be required to track their mileage, if a VMT fee better match the needs of the system than gas taxes and why anyone would voluntarily participate in the program. Here are the (very interesting) answers to those questions, and more.

Transportation Plan To Be Proposed Today In Olympia

The Spokesman-Review reports that a major transportation plan to be unveiled today in Olympia will propose a 2-cent-per-year increase in the state’s gasoline tax. The budget plan, from House Transportation Committee Chairman Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, will divide the money between new projects and maintenance and eventually raise the state’s gas tax by a total of 10 cents.


Gov. Jay Inslee, who has said he wants a transportation package that would build new projects and fix some of its crumbling infrastructure, declined to endorse it Tuesday, saying only it is “a good start on that discussion.”
House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, called the plan a major jobs package and said the plan would set aside significant amounts for maintenance. Previous gasoline tax packages have been criticized as emphasizing new projects and not leaving enough for ongoing road repairs.

WA Drivers Volunteering To Pay-By-The-Mile

Some Washington drivers are volunteering to pay by the mile to drive.It's part of a pilot project to test technology that would charge drivers for every mile they drive on public roads.

About 20 Washington residents are voluntarily taking part in the pilot program out of Oregon. The road-use charge is considered a possible alternative to the gas tax, which will generate less and less money as cars become more fuel efficient.

Once a month, the drivers get a bill charging them 1.5 cents a mile, then offsetting the total by the amount  already paid in gas tax. KREM.com has how it's working so far.

Mayors Get Together To Ask Gov. Inslee For Gas Tax

Sometimes politicians don't agree on much, but most Washington's mayors agree a gas tax is needed to fund transportation needs. Mayors of more than 40 cities across the state yesterday sent a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee and legislative leaders, urging them to consider an 8 cent per-gallon gas tax. There's no mention of Spokane Mayor David Condon, though I don't know if that's because he wasn't involved with the letter or if it's because this CBS News article is out of the west side of the state.

Where Does Your Money Go When You Buy Gas?

So you know that every time you fill your car's gas tank, a certain portion of your money goes to a gas tax, the oil company gets some and the gas station ends up with a little. But how is it actually divided? The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) had that question and took a closer look and their conclusion; most of the money you spend at the pump goes directly to one place: oil companies.

A typical American spends more than $22,000 on gas over the lifetime of a vehicle purchased in 2011 with average fuel efficiency of 22.8 mpg. UCS says, of that amount, oil companies rake in about $15,000.

Where does the remainder go?
Here's the full article and some cool charts and graphs as well.