Mileage Tax Could Get Test Drive in Hawaii

Flickr: @cdharrison

With gas consumption projected to decrease in coming years, lawmakers are looking for a new way to pay for roads — taxing drivers based on their mileage.

House Bill 1531 and Senate Bill 819 each note that revenue from gas taxes, a main source of infrastructure funding, will diminish as fuel-efficient and electric vehicles proliferate. They say there's a better way.

"The number of miles each vehicle travels is a gauge of actual use and associated impact on the land transportation infrastructure," says HB 1531, which was introduced by Transportation Committee Chair Joe Souki and eight others. That bill and SB 819 each instruct the Hawaii Department of Transportation to develop pilot programs to test alternatives to the existing fuel tax schemes.

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