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If the gasoline tax we are paying is not adequate to pay for road repairs, improvements and new projects, then ODOT should analyze why (using a Kaizen analysis is one way to get to the root cause), and propose an amount that would cover their budgeted expenditures for a set period of time. The answer is not to throw out the system we are using, but rather to make that system work better for us. Throwing out a system is a typical American business / government practice, and it rarely results in a new system that provides better results.

Also, it has been mentioned that the gasoline tax is not a real user tax, and that tax-by-mile is...no? If I drive more, I pay more gas tax because I am filling up more often - seems pretty simple. How is that not representative of my use of the roads?

If we go to a pay-by-mile tax, then we would seem to lose all of the tax revenue that out-of-state folks pay now to use our roads. I am concerned that we will then, as Oregonians, actually pay a higher amount of tax to cover roads. We should share the burden with those that share the use of our roads.

Who is going to fund the new technology that a pay-by-mile system would need? I doubt the automakers are going to fund it, without passing it on to consumers in one way or another. And what about the devices that ODOT/Oregon will need, and the ones that would have to be installed at every gas station in Oregon. Has anyone done a complete cost / benefit analysis on this idea??

I am 100% against this idea (in case you couldn't tell)!

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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