At least three states are considering implementing programs that would charge residents not by how many gallons of gas their cars use, but instead by how many miles they actually drive.
According to Breitbart, such changes are being considered in order to offset rising inflation, which has reduced the profit generated by previous forms of infrastructure-related taxation such as gas taxes. “Those taxes are generating less each year due to inflation, fuel efficiency and the rise of electric cars,” Fox Business reports.
In addition to by-the-mile charges, other proposals being considered for covering the cost of maintaining roads include taxes on electricity used in electric car charging stations, as well as taxes on door-to-door deliveries by delivery drivers.
As of now, the three states that are actively implementing this proposal are Oregon, Utah, and Virginia. Hawaii is also planning on implementing such a charge in the near future.
“The federal government is about to pilot its own program,” Fox notes, “funded by $125 million from Biden’s infrastructure measure that he signed in November 2021.”
The efforts to offset these costs reflect the ongoing struggles that many Americans face from the seemingly endless upward trajectory of inflation. Even Mitch Landriue, an adviser in the Biden Administration, conceded recently that “inflation is very, very stubborn.”
“It’s lower here than in every other [country in the] industrialized world and it has come down for the last eleven months,” Landrieu said at a recent briefing. “So, I’m not saying we’re out of the battle.”
An overwhelming majority of voters remain concerned about inflation, despite its apparently minimal effects on the 2022 midterm elections last November. A recent poll from Rasmussen showed that 87 percent of likely voters in the United States say they are concerned about inflation, with 63 percent describing themselves as “very concerned.” Just 11 percent say they are “not concerned.”