Educated Guesswork: December 2003 Archives
Why don’t we just tax gasoline more?
Interesting ideas, and as usual, Eric musters a lot of good information in support of his position.
But as discussed in an earlier thread, I’d like to see the whole idea of car taxes rethought.
We tax two things: the privilege to drive on public roads and the gas it takes to do that. As we see in every state, it seems, these two levers are never pulled in concert. We play with the gas tax (or the CAFE standards) or we monkey with license fees (license plates, car tabs: usage varies by state). In some cases, like Washington and California, the license fees are cut to the bone.
I agree that per-gallon taxes (essentially usage fees) are regressive: you drive more, you pay more, especially if you drive an older, less efficient car. And while I agree that a per-gallon tax makes a lot of sense, I still think we should connect the license fee and the usage fee as part of the overall funding of our transportation system. That’s why I suggested in the referenced post that we institute a per-gallon tax/usage fee based on curb weight. If the increased axle loads of these increasingly enormous SUVs is wrecking the roads, their owners should pay a proportionally larger share of the upkeep: long-haul truckers are familiar with this already.
The bottom line is that there should be a more direct link in the taxpayer’s mind between the
the price for access to some good and the decisions they make that set that price.