The other day, after much procrastination, we took the plunge and got a new car—not brand new, mind you, but new to us. That’s what counts, right?
The new ride lacks the smooth ride of my old domestic sedan. A Nissan, it’s not plush, and there aren’t a lot of frills. But besides that great ‘new car smell,’ it’s got one good thing going for it—it costs about $29 to fill up. I love that fuel economy, and that was single biggest reason to get it.
Maybe I’m a cheapskate, but I’m not the only one. Folks may still love their gas guzzlers, but every day in downtown Snoqualmie, I witness drivers lining up their electric vehicles for the cheap charging stations on our block.
Since I’m driving a compact car, I’m not only paying less for gas, I’m paying less in gas taxes. Those folks in the electric cars, they’re not paying any gas tax. What does this mean for our roads system? The answer to that question is something that affects all of us, no matter what kind of car we drive.
Every five years, the state’s Transportation Commission updates its 20-year plan, meant to inform state and local government’s decisions on transportation spending and related issues.
The commission is introducing its new, 2035 plan at a series of public forums. You can also see it online and comment at wtp2035.com.
The most significant issue the plan raises doesn’t involve concrete, steel rails or bridge trusses, but how the state pays for maintenance, operation and new construction in the coming years. The state’s gas tax, 37.5 cents per gallon, isn’t automatically adjusted for inflation and doesn’t account for the increase in the number of vehicles with improved fuel efficiency. With each passing year, the revenue from the gas tax pays for less and less.
The transportation commission, in a draft plan, calls for a transition from the gas tax to a road usage charge, basically treating transportation in general and roads in particular as a utility to be paid for, based on how much of the service each of us uses.
Actually, the commission couches its guidance in squishier language: “The commission recommends that the state continue to evaluate and plan for a possible transition from the gas tax to a road usage charge.” But you get the picture.
A subcommittee was more concrete, recommending that such a usage charge be assessed by charging a flat fee for an unlimited number of miles each month or year, a per-mile fee based on a vehicle’s odometer reading, a per-mile fee with mileage determined by a GPS-recording device, or a combination of two or more of those options.
Any system that uses GPS to determine how many miles are driven on state roadways will likely raise privacy concerns among motorists. And the gas tax, at least for the time being, remains the closest thing we have to a carbon tax, levying a higher tax on those who pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
As we’ve seen with King County’s $60 car tab fee that failed at the polls, we need to be careful about how we try to fund transportation in this region. Still, a gas tax probably isn’t a sustainable way to keep our roads system working. Sooner or later, it’ll be running on fumes. Now’s your chance to weigh in on what replaces it.
• Our sister newspaper, the Everett Herald, contributed the original version of this column.
