The Wall Street Journal published a 10-page energy section with the declining gas tax problem on page 1. Five solutions are offered: taxing the miles, taxing the roads, indexing the gas tax, taxing the oil, and taxing the cars. Each has challenges.
Michael Totty, news editor for The Journal Report in San Francisco, explains the problem as two-fold: "First, the tax has failed to keep up with the rising cost of highway construction and repair. And second, improved fuel economy and the rise of hybrid and electric vehicles means that more driving won't be matched by higher gasoline sales."
"[W]e do not have a sustainable way of paying for our transportation system", explains Pete K. Rahn, leader of the national transportation practice at HNTB Corp. "Looking ahead, the Congressional Budget Office predicts gas-tax revenue will fall by a cumulative $57 billion over the next 11 years thanks to a scheduled increase in federal fuel-economy standards."
"The idea that gets the broadest support is to take the user-fee piece of the gas tax to its logical conclusion: tax motorists on the miles they drive. Many economists argue that such a tax-known as a vehicle-miles-traveled tax or mileage-based user fee-is the fairest, most sustainable replacement for the gasoline tax. The problem is how to track the miles." And then there is the cost of collecting the fee.
"Mileage-based fees can also be adjusted to discourage motorists from driving on the most congested roads or at the busiest times of day. Mileage-based fees "let us kill two birds with one stone," says Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "Short of privatization, it really is the free-market solution."
Less radical would be to adjust the gas tax to inflation, either by changing from an excise (per-gallon) gas tax to a sales tax or adjusting the tax to the Consumer Price Index, or an index of construction costs.
"Florida currently indexes a portion of its gasoline tax to the CPI; in 2011 the indexed portion accounted for 19.5 cents of the state fuel tax of 23.5 cents a gallon."
Totty does not report on the two federal commissions charged with addressing the gas tax problem he writes about, nor does he shed much light on how the gas tax crisis is recent in making due to the failure of Presidents Bush and Obama to raise it. The gas tax timeline depiction in the article points to gas tax increases in the Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Reagan administrations. In fact, there was enough gas tax revenue to dedicate some to reducing the national deficit, a flow that was reversed in 2010 with $14.7 billion of general revenue propping up the Highway Trust Fund.
Thanks to Jonathan Nettler
FULL STORY: The Gas Tax Is Running Low. But What Should Replace It?

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie