electricron wrote:I recommend killing all gas taxes and replacing it with another tax.
How much do gas taxes generate as revenue today?
Around $28 Billion during FY 2008. I assume the funds collected today are about the same.
How many new cars and trucks are sold in the USA?
Around 16 million
I suggest an additional $2000 average tax for every new car and truck sold be the replacement tax. The new car tax could be ratio by weight or by gas mileage. Spread that $2000 tax over the average 5 year loan, that's just $400 per year, about $30 per month for your car's payment bill.
For comparison purposes, the average American drives a car 16550 miles a year, with an average gas mileage of 25 miles per gallon (2015 new car), with a Federal gas tax around 18 cents per gallon. That averages $119 in gas tax per year.
Math = 16550 / 25 x 0.18 = 119.16.
I recently read that the average American pays around $98 in federal gas tax per year, so your numbers are on the high side. I thought the average driving distance of 16,550 miles a year was high, so I did a search. Turns out 16,550 is the average for males across all age groups. The average for the US driving population is 13,476 miles per year. Source:
Average Annual Miles per Driver by Age Group. Using 13,476 miles / 25 mpg x 0.183 = $98. Which matches the number I read in regards to how much the average American pays in federal gas taxes per year. Although this is nit-picking, on my part I admit.
As for levying a one time car tax on sales of a new car, the revenue from that would have collapsed when car and SUV sales plunged after the 2008 crash. The beauty of the gas tax is that it is an incremental tax, paid in relatively small amounts over the course of the year, and is inexpensive to collect. Another advantage of the gas tax is that those who drive heavier vehicles and/or drive more miles, thus causing more demand and wear on the road system, pay more. Perhaps not in direct proportion to the amount of wear they may cause to the road, but in principle, if you opt to drive a big pickup truck, you pay more gas tax.
IIRC, the federal government is currently pulling in around $34 billion a year from the 18.3 cent excise tax on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel. The annual outlay of the HTF is circa $50 billion, so the annual shortfall is in the ballpark of $16 billion plus. The easiest near term solution would be to raise the excise tax on gas and diesel by 12 cents a gallon. That would effectively fix the shortfall for the rest of the decade. The Mass Transit Fund which currently gets 16% of the gas tax (2.9 cents) would get a proportional increase. And how about 1.4 cents of the 12 cents to passenger rail for capital grants (Amtrak and state projects)?
Not a long term solution, true, but the simplest and easiest change to implement. Yes, fully electric or plug-in hybrid cars would not pay a gas tax, but they are a tiny percentage of the cars & SUVs on the road. An annual assessment based on mileage driven on electric cars would be one way to begin to transition to a direct annual mileage driven transportation tax approach that could be phased in over 10-12 years for all vehicles.
However, the politics in Congress at present mean that any increase in the gas tax, even one that adjusts for inflation since 1993, is a non-starter. Instead, Congress is likely to go with some ridiculously complex tax scheme to "generate" revenue to cover the shortfall in the HTF for the next 3-4 years. And Amtrak will limp along with about $1.4 billion in total funding per year; enough to keep running, but not enough for the NEC or buying new rolling stock for the LD network.
