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In the national search for a replacement to the gas tax, Oregon is at the steering wheel.

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., last week introduced federal legislation to create a national program to study the use of in-car GPS devices to track and tax the miles motorists travel, while the Oregon Department of Transportation prepares for the second phase of its pilot program to do the same.

The federal attention has brought Oregon’s program, intended to replace the gas tax, to the fore and may keep it moving into the future.

But despite a head start in studying how to implement a vehicle-miles-traveled fee system, ODOT still has plenty of questions to answer and little money with which to do so.

James Whitty, manager of ODOT’s Office of Innovative Partnerships and Alternative Funding, believes Oregon has the opportunity to 鈥渟pread its expertise鈥� across the nation. He’s confident the federal government will recognize this, and fill the state program’s funding gap.

鈥淥regon is still the only state that has tested a complete testing system for mileage fees,鈥� Whitty said.
ODOT finished testing the GPS transponders in Portland a year and a half ago, using approximately 260 cars.

The tests proved the GPS system could work 鈥� if tweaks were made. The most prominent tweak would be to ensure the information relayed from the car to the gas pump is accurate.

Whitty said the next step for Oregon will be to create an 鈥渙pen platform鈥� for the system. This would make the system universal in any car. The project’s next phase would involve upwards of 5,000 cars and cost an additional $5 million to $7 million.

ODOT hasn’t budgeted for that, but it would likely seek assistance from the federal government, Whitty said.
The federal legislation is not intended to replicate Oregon’s program, according to Blumenauer’s office. The most important aspects of the program would be the same, however.

In essence, the system would track the number of miles traveled, and when they were traveled. At the pump, that information would be relayed electronically to a system that would deduct the tax from the overall price of the gas.

Motorists driving at peak times on highly congested roads would face higher prices. But charges for driving in uncongested parts of the region would be much lower, perhaps nearly zero in rural areas for certain types of vehicles.

State estimates show that creating a vehicle-miles-traveled fee could cost $33 million. That cost, however, could be offset, in part, by charging drivers for the transponders.

Because car owners would likely pay for the devices, Whitty said the next phase of study would also look at ways to create different types of GPS systems that would address different needs, including heightened security and other features.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, a national advocacy organization for truck drivers, worries that a vehicle-miles-traveled fee hasn’t been properly vetted at the state level, including in Oregon.

The organization also believes that if a vehicle-miles-traveled fee were instituted in the next two to three years, federal and state governments would continue to tax gasoline.

鈥淭here are many unanswered questions with a proposed vehicle-miles tax, especially considering that the bill does not call for a removal of a fuel tax if established,鈥� Norita Taylor, spokeswoman for the OOIDA, said.

鈥淭he current system of levying federal taxes on trucks is already extremely discriminatory and harmful.鈥�
According to OOIDA, the program remains unproven.

Blumenauer’s office, however, says a federal vehicle-miles-traveled fee program would require years of study. A timeline mentioned during congressional hearings in May involved a five- to 10-year period of study and slow integration.