How to maintain roads with less gas tax?

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, January 10, 2017

I read the Jan. 6 letter from the writer who was appalled by the thought of a mileage tax on automobiles traveling in Washington. (“Gimmicky idea to replace gas tax is a bad one.”) I thought a reply was in order. Automobiles use less gasoline per mile than they did in 1980. Since then, the number of automobiles has increased, as have the number of aggregate miles driven.

Tax revenues, which have been historically based on the amount of gasoline sold, have decreased in proportion to the number of miles driven. That means the degradation to infrastructure has increased, while the money to maintain that infrastructure has decreased relative to the wear. Unfortunately, road wear is impervious to politics. If road wear occurs and drivers want to utilize decent, reasonably uncrowded roads, one must collect taxes to maintain them properly. To many this would sound polemical, but mathematics and common sense suggest that collecting taxes in sufficient quantity to combat inevitable road degradation is a good idea. Only in America, would this logic be assailed.

William Mezger

Edmonds