• Home
  • test
  • Good News
  • promo-homepage
  • The Planet
  • Culture
  • Innovators
  • Travel
  • Design
  • Videos
  • Science
  • Health
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Communities
  • Hero Video
  • Lifestyle
  • Culture
  • Innovation
  • The Planet
  • Health
  • Issue 001
  • Business
  • GOOD Blog
  • This Week In GOOD
  • GOOD Events
  • Issue 002
  • Issue 003
  • Issue 004
  • Issue 005
  • Issue 006
  • Issue 007
  • Issue 008
  • Issue 009
  • Issue 010
  • Issue 011
  • Issue 012
  • Transparency
  • GOOD Video
  • Issue 013
  • Pop!Tech 2008
  • Boing Boing on GOOD
  • Issue 014
  • Conflict of Interests
  • News
  • Transparency
  • Issue 015
  • Issue 016
  • Road Map to Harmony
  • We Like to Share
  • Inventions
  • Emails from Afar
  • Issue 017
  • Building a Better Future
  • Big Ideas!
  • Issue 018
  • Projects
  • Making Money and Changing the World
  • Picture Show
  • The Data Issue
  • GOOD Projects
  • GOOD HQ
  • Viral
  • Opinion
  • Trump
  • Iraq
  • GoodFriday
  • Food
  • Sports
  • GOODFest
  • Money
  • Education
  • Upworthy
  • The GOOD Cities Project
  • Empathy: A Hard Look at a Touchy-Feely Subject
  • The GOOD Wellness Project
  • The 2014 GOOD City Index
  • The 2014 GOOD Gift Guide to Beautiful Books
  • Data for GOOD
  • Project Literacy
  • Issue 33: The Global Citizen
  • Neighborday
  • The Road Home
  • Issue 34: Failure & Success
  • Push for GOOD
  • BULLETPROOF.
  • The Local Globalists
  • Issue 35: The Fashion Issue
  • The GOOD Guide to Recycling
  • Issue 36: The 2016 GOOD 100
  • GOOD Citizens
  • At The Table Podcast
  • Issue 37: The Money Issue
  • The GOOD Guide To Money
  • The GOOD Energy Project
  • Issue 38: 10th Anniversary Issue
  • The GOOD Guide to Cannabis
  • GOOD Cities: Welcome (Back) to Detroit
  • Gender In Sports: Leveling The Playing Field
  • Good Advice From Good People
  • The GOOD Guide to Donald Trump
  • Issue 39: The OGOD Issue
  • Call Us Crazy, But Good Matters
  • The Long Game
  • The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Social Good Spotlight
  • The Activist :
  • The Place :
  • The Philanthropist :
  • The Company :
  • The Product :
  • The Leader :
  • The Artist :
  • The Media :
  • The Voice :
  • The Action :
  • Racial Justice
  • Animals
  • Featured Articles
    • Business
    • Planet
    • Innovation
    • Design
    • Culture
    • Cities
    • About
    • Contact
    • Upworthy
    • GOOD Institute
    • Leaps.org
    Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy
    GOOD
    Infographics

    Ray LaHood Is Talking Transportation Taxes

    Right now, our driving is taxed with extra cost attached to the price of gasoline. You need gas to drive, so you pay the government some for it, and they get money in exchange for you driving. But new Transportation Secretary LaHood sees another way: a vehicle mileage tax A VMT plan would essentially..

    Morgan Clendaniel
    02.22.09

    Right now, our driving is taxed with extra cost attached to the price of gasoline. You need gas to drive, so you pay the government some for it, and they get money in exchange for you driving. But new Transportation Secretary LaHood sees another way: a vehicle mileage taxA VMT plan would essentially tax you for the number of miles you drove instead of the number of gallons of gas you used. Even though that seems like the same basic thing, there are two reasons why advocates say a VMT is an important innovation. The first upside of this tax is that we wouldn't be driving our hybrids on roads filled with potholes. Ideally, we'll be driving more and more hybrid cars, or even electric cars. If our main transportation funding comes from a gas tax, that funding will start to dry up.The second reason is that the gas tax is a flat fee imposed per gallon, not a percentage of your total gas bill. Therefore, it's not subject to inflation or changes in gas prices (for more on gas taxes, see our GOOD Sheet on the subject). As gas prices rise, the purchasing power of the government to make infrastructure improvements doesn't increase. Gas taxes are also notoriously hard to raise (see what just happened in California). No politician wants to be the one saying people should be paying for more gas-you may recall the "gas tax holiday" debacle from the 2008 campaign, where Obama boldly refused to join Clinton and McCain in pandering by advocating for removing the gas tax entirely during the summer's gas price increases. In a world where gas prices rise and we drive more and more hybrids, the government's transportation revenue could be drastically reduced.


    Another, even more innovative solution, would be a what's called a weight-mile tax, which would both make up for lost gas tax revenue from hybrids and have the added benefit of encouraging more hybrid drivers. The principle behind it is simple: heavier vehicles do more damage to roads , and should therefore bear more of the burden of paying for their upkeep. The U.S. trucking industry already pays such a tax with little problem, extending it to cars and SUVs would give drivers an additional tax incentive to trade in that Explorer for a Prius: each mile would cost less.The main problem with either of these plans is monitoring. It requires a GPS chip in a car to see how many miles you drive. For many people, including myself, this starts to get a little Orwellian. Even if the information is merely miles driven, not where those miles were, it becomes a concerning piece of information for the government to have. Would we start seeing VMT records subpoenaed in murder trials or divorce cases? Almost certainly. That said, a few months of innovative thinkers and scientists putting their brains together must be able to find a way to put the privacy concerns to rest. I certainly hope they can, because Pigovian taxes like a weight-mile tax are absolutely necessary to solving our current transportation woes.Map via.Image via.