Big Brother may soon join Boston University School of Management junior Matt Hayden in his Nissan Altima on his daily commute to and from his Allston apartment and the BU campus.
An odometer-reliant tax could be on the horizon for Massachusetts drivers and several other states to supplement state transportation debts. The proposed tax would place Global Positioning Systems in cars and charge drivers based on their car’s vehicle miles traveled, or VMT. But the program is sparking argument over issues of implementation, privacy and feasibility.
Hayden, who said he fills up on gas about once a week, said there is an undeniable need for transportation reform in Massachusetts, but letting the state ride in the shotgun seat is not the answer.
‘I’m not a criminal,’ Hayden said, ‘but I don’t like the idea of someone lurking over my shoulder.’ I’d rather bring my car back home [to Holland, Pa.] than let them install GPS.’
While the state investigates alternative revenue sources such as VMT programs, Gov. Deval Patrick is planning to raise the gas tax by 19 cents, the first increase since 1991, as an immediate way to cut the transportation system’s debt, according to a press release issued by the governor’s office on Feb. 20.
‘Raising the gas tax is a last resort, and without it, our economy will suffer,’ Patrick said in the press release. ‘Our long-term job growth and economic security, along with the safety of our roads and bridges, depends upon both major reforms and new revenue now.’
Proposed VMT programs are being discussed in several states in addition to Massachusetts, including Idaho, Missouri and North Carolina, and have already been tested successfully in Oregon. Though the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission endorsed nationwide VMT programs over gas taxes as an effective means of transportation revenue Feb. 25, the Obama administration said Feb. 26 that it will not support a national policy of VMT programs.
The American Trucking Association, an advocacy group for the U.S. trucking industry, does not support the VMT tax because it is unnecessary, spokesman Clayton Boyce said in an email.
‘The complaint that the fuel tax yields less as vehicles become more fuel-efficient is easily remedied by increasing the fuel tax rate,’ Boyce said. ‘The trucking industry supports increasing fuel taxes as long as the revenue raised is dedicated to improving highway infrastructure.’
But VMT programs are a reasonable long-term solution to widespread state transportation debt, said Larry Goode, lead engineer for the 21st Century Transportation Committee, the N.C. committee commissioned to study transportation reform possibilities.
‘The gas tax can’t be our solution,’ Goode said.
Hayden said he remains confident that a VMT program will never pass in Massachusetts.
‘There’s no way they’re going to get that passed,’ Hayden said.’ ‘It’s a huge invasion of privacy and a waste of money.’
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
