Falling gas tax revenue from more fuel-efficient vehicles has driven the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to look for volunteers to experiment with technology that could lead to new ways of paying for highways.
About 500 urban and rural motorists will begin testing gear in July that contains GPS links to track distances traveled.
The experiment underscores Minnesota's need for new sources of revenue to pay for highway construction and maintenance.
Or you could, you, just increase the damn gas tax. Is there some possible future where gas mileage in cars has increased so much, or electric cars are a significant portion of the fleet, when it ceases to be a viable funding mechanism? Sure, but we're nowhere near that. What we are in is in situation where politicians think that they can't raise the gas tax but think that they can add on an entirely new, expensive, and invasive systems for collecting more money that voters will just love.
Also, too, if you really are desperate to institute a mileage tax for no good reason that I can see, you can just have someone check the odometer at an annual inspection.
Aside from revenue collection, the gas tax has the additional benefit of encouraging people to drive cars with better mileage, along with charging more for heavier vehicles which do more damage to the roads. It's a pretty good tax!
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