Take a detour on proposed mileage tax
Published April 12, 2014
Editorial by Burlington Times-News, April 10, 2014.
The state is looking for new ways to generate revenue to help fuel what it characterizes as the ever escalating costs of maintaining North Carolina’s increasingly complex and utilized system of roads. Smooth pavement costs big money. Potholes are aplenty, apparently. People like wider lanes, too.
So, what else is new?
Well, there’s this: A proposal is under discussion that would tax North Carolina drivers even more than they already are. Last week the state Board of Transportation’s funding committee batted around the idea of charging motorists a half-cent per mile for vehicles. It’s not chump change they’re talking about either. Estimates are that such a move would send the state almost $500 million annually out of the pockets of Tar Heel motorists. A driver logging 15,000 miles in a year would pay about $75, the committee reported. The mileage tax would, in theory, be calculated each year during the car or truck’s annual inspection.
This would be, ahem, an addition to the already brutal 37.6 cents per mile gasoline tax residents already pay at the pump, one of the highest in the nation.
The proposal springs from concerns about an ever shallowing pool of funds in order to maintain highways statewide. Lawmakers are looking at several ideas to offset declining state gas tax revenues. More fuel-efficient cars mean people buy gas less often. And in a struggling economy, people are traveling a little less.
And transportation officials see the mileage tax as more of a user fee. Drivers who are on the road the most would pay a higher tab, which seems logical on the surface. People who use the roads create more wear and tear. One analyst equated it to a water and sewer bill.
But the issue is far more complex.
First and foremost, North Carolina roads are used by millions of people each day — many of them from out of state, drivers who would get a free pass under this system. A truck from New Jersey traveling on our highways creates just as much damage as a truck from Graham.
And there is a matter of personal privacy. Is it really the government’s business how much or even where a state resident may travel? For that matter, how can the state gauge the number of miles a North Carolinian might have logged outside of North Carolina on roads in other states?
The impact on low-income motorists is another issue for further study.
On the plus side, such a user fee could further influence people to abandon frivolous driving or perhaps even take a second look at public transportation options where available.
The good news is, no decision is likely imminent. It’s a sure bet that state lawmakers aren’t interested in handing a spending issue that will be hotter than asphalt on the Fourth of July during the short session of an election year.
But there is also little doubt that residents expect well-maintained roads and the cost of doing so can be prohibitive — and then some. Some combination of gasoline taxes, toll roads or another kind of fee is probably inevitable.
It’s incumbent upon state leaders to find a fair way to spread the cost.
