By Williamson County Commissioner Lisa Birkman
All of us here in Williamson County are aware of the need for additional roads due to our growing population. Over the past year or so, quite a bit has been written about the way we finance roads, especially at the state and federal level, especially with the new toll roads that have built in our area. You have probably heard a lot about the federal gasoline tax, which we currently pay, and how it does not generate enough funds to cover our growing need for new infrastructure. Today, the average vehicle gets approximately 20 miles to the gallon. Of course, there is a wide range to get to that average. This example comes from Craig Westover of Twincities.com in Minnesota, “A Toyota Prius has an EPA combined mileage of 55 miles per gallon….A Chevy Suburban logs about 12 miles a gallon. A 1,000 mile trip in the Suburban produces about $16.67 in tax revenue compared to around $3.64 for the Prius.” Some people think that making those with less fuel efficient vehicles pay more is appropriate. Others do not. There has been discussion of raising the amount of the gasoline tax for years, but this is very unpopular with many segments of our country, especially when we all recently experienced $4 a gallon gasoline prices. Another issue is that everyone who buys gas pays the tax, but then it goes to the federal government and is sent back to states. Some states, such as ours, pay in more than we receive back, which makes it really difficult to consider raising the tax.
So, other ideas for funding have been proposed and one of them is called the Vehicle Miles Traveled tax, or VMT. It is basically a tax on how many miles you travel on certain roads. When I first heard about this idea, I immediately had a lot of questions come to mind such as how would this tax would be collected. Several pilot studies have been done. Currently, the University of Iowa Public Policy Institute is conducting a study on VMT in several areas of the country including Austin. More information is available at http://www.roaduserstudy.org. Drivers are needed to participate and are paid a small fee to do so. Basically, all of the methods of determining VMT involve having some sort of computerized device, or GPS, attached to vehicles to track your mileage and then have the info downloaded so you can pay the tax. Of course, the problem with this is that then “the government” would have a lot of information about your movements and this could be an invasion of your privacy. On the other hand, both a Prius and a Suburban would pay the same amount of tax for the same amount of driving, which some people like. Another issue is what would happen to the gasoline tax. Would the VMT tax replace it or be in addition to it?
I would be interested in hearing from you about what you think about a VMT tax or any other county issue. You can contact me at lbirkman@wilco.org or 733-5380.