If there was any place in America that would attempt to make drivers pay for every mile they drive, then California is the first place to think of. A Caltrans pilot program is testing out replacing the gas tax with charging drivers to pay for every mile they drive. The program suggests making people plug an electric device into their car that tracks their mileage. I guess they would get a bill at some point. I would throw the device in the trash and call it a day. ABC7 had some information on the test program being done out in California, saying the following in a news article:
California roads are maintained through gas tax revenue, but that's dwindling with the increase in the number of electric vehicles. A new pilot program aims to charge drivers for using the roads based on how much they actually drive - removing California's gas tax and replace it with a mileage tax instead.
Caltrans spokesperson Lauren Prehoda said maintaining roadways costs around between $8 billion to $9 billion a year with the vast majority of the funds coming from California's gas taxes, which are collected every time a driver fills their gas tank. According to Caltrans, California now has more than 1.2 million hybrid or electric vehicles registered in the state, which means gas tax revenues are falling.
"On average, Californians pay about $300 a year in state gas taxes," Prehoda said. "EVs have a $100 (annual) registration fee... that's a $200 million a year loss." To bridge that gap, Caltrans is proposing what it calls the California Road Charge, which would tax drivers on the number of miles they drive.
Anything they're doing over in California is probably the wrong thing. That state seems to be going further into the ground under Gavin Newsom and all his associates. Remember they spent billions to fix homelessness, but homeless people people are still all over and they couldn't even figure out how to measure the impact of the money they spent. Yeah, where'd they spend it? I'd like to know that answer.
