The government has a problem with your new, high-mileage, low-pollution car: you aren’t paying enough in gas taxes to keep up the federal highway system. Recently, at Congress’s behest, the Congressional Budget Office studied another way to raise money; charge drivers per mile driven, rather than (or in addition to) taxing your gas. The Vehicle Mileage Tax (VMT) is meant to directly reflect some of the costs of maintaining the highways that are not a direct consequence of the gas you burn.
The technology to track where you drive and how far is now available, as well, combining things like the E-ZPass with GPS and wireless networking. The VMT is not suggested just as a way to bring in revenue, though. It is also envisioned as a way to shape human behavior. How would it work? There are a couple of implementation possibilities. The government could mandate new cars be fit with some sort of tracking and reporting device. This means it would take 15-20 years before all vehicles are outfitted. Or it could require all drivers to have their current car retrofitted with such a device, which would be a large one-time expense. These devices could serve multiple purposes, though; they could also be used to buy insurance-by-the-mile, or deliver real-time traffic information to the driver.
How real is the potential for this “user fee”, the government supplemented the Highway Trust Fund to the tune of $30 billion from 2008 to 2010. It could end up as a state-level program. Read up on state and federal laws and statues. Power Your Mind! MadOne/ Forbes
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