Albany Albany City Council Albany council Albany downtown Albany housing Albany parks Albany Planning Commission Albany police Albany Post Office Albany Public Works Albany riverfront Albany schools Albany Station Albany streets Albany traffic Albany urban renewal Amtrak apartments ARA Benton County bicycling bike lanes Bowman Park Bryant Park CARA climate change COVID-19 Cox Creek Crocker Lane cumberland church cycling Dave Clark Path downtown Albany Edgewater Village Ellsworth Street bridge Highway 20 homeless housing Interstate 5 land use Linn County Millersburg Monteith Riverpark North Albany North Albany Road ODOT Oregon legislature Pacific Boulevard Pacific Power Portland & Western Queen Avenue Railroads Republic Services Riverside Drive Santiam Canal Scott Lepman Talking Water Gardens The Banks Tom Cordier Union Pacific urban renewal Water Avenue Waterfront Project Waverly Lake Willamette River
Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved. Hasso Hering.
Website Serviced by Santiam Communications
Road user fee: An update
The road user fee bill is still pending in the House Revenue Committee.
Our legislators continue to labor over a proposal to get some road tax money from the owners of vehicles that use little or no fuel. We’re talking here about House Bill 2453, the result of more than a decade of work by the Road User Fee Task Force in the Department of Transportation.
The bill calls for a road usage fee to be paid on vehicles that get more than 55 miles to the gallon, which essentially means electric cars. The bill cleared the House Transportation Committee over Republican objections on April 3. Since then the House tax committee, headed by Phil Barnhart of Eugene, has held two public hearings and a work session and plans another work session, when action can be taken, on May 8. After that, the joint budget committee would take a look at the measure. (For an update, see the later entry on this bill.)
We all pay for roads through the state fuel tax of 30 cents a gallon. If you drive 15,000 miles in a car that gets 20 miles to the gallon, you now pay the state $225 in gas tax. A road user tax of 1.5 cents a mile would yield the same amount.
The bill would have ODOT come up with various ways that electric car owners could report their mileage and pay the fee. Since all cars have odometers, you’d think this would not be hard. (hh)
Tags: road usage fee, Road User Fee Task Force