Tolls

atreis wrote:

Dog Folks wrote:
I tend to agree. It is easier but how will electric cars pay their fair share?

We have this problem now - Natural Gas powered vehicles also don't pay gas tax. Nonetheless, it has the potential to become a much bigger issue and is actually an interesting question. Some options:

1) Stop thinking of roads as only benefiting those that use them as they're important to the general economy, emergency services, etc. and add it to the income tax. (The complaints for this option are pretty predictable.)
2) Remove the gas tax. Require people to provide their mileage driven on their tax returns and tax them accordingly. (Has issues with audits and enforcement, and solvable complications around buying and selling of cars.)
3) #2 but only for purely electric, Natural Gas, and hydrogen powered cars, and continue the gas tax for all others. (Reduces the population that has to do this, but still has issues with audits and enforcement.)
4) #3 but require technology that will track mileage driven and automatically report it, to fix the enforcement problem. (Could be done without privacy issues if the only thing reported was mileage, but most likely would end up having them because of the need to be able to audit for accuracy.)
5) Collect tolls on highways. (Only works for roads where tolls can reasonably be collected, and so users of those toll roads would end up paying for the surface streets too. Has a disproportionate negative effect on service companies and the working poor.)
6) Require toll transponders in cars and put up devices that would record people passing by various points on most roads - not just highways - without people having to slow down or otherwise change their driving patterns, and automatically charge them. (Fixes most issues with #5, but would be expensive to implement and has privacy issues as records of which cars passed which points at what time would have to be maintained for a while for auditing of accuracy.)

No doubt there are others ... Unfortunately, all have issues. The gas tax was an unusually convenient proxy for a use tax.

How about taxing tires instead of fuel? All vehicles use them and the larger vehicles would natural pay more due to using larger tires. You could even prorate based upon the remaining tread on the old tires when you replace them.