Should We Charge Our Electric Cars?

Including transport, telephone, and energy, the U.S. infrastructure rank is #13:

The Highway Trust Fund is one solution.

But it might not be.

Highway Funding

In 1916, approximately when Henry Ford figured out the moving assembly line for his Model Ts, federal highway funding started. Leaping to 1956, we would have seen the creation of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). Through its highway account, the HFT focuses on road construction and upkeep although state and local governments share the task (and pay 80% of the tab). Meanwhile, the HTF’s mass transit initiatives partially fund the capital expenditures of a vast array of transit alternatives like buses and airports.

The details display what we now pay:

The same today, the 18.3 cents per gallon gas tax started in 1993. Now though, to be equal to its original amount, the tax would need to be a whopping 41 cents a gallon.

Not enough, HTF’s revenue is dwindling

All of our numbers take us to big questions that face our current leaders. We have to decide how and whether to pay for our transport infrastructure.

Tradeoffs

Every HTF solution requires a big tradeoff.

• We could raise the fuel tax. After all, it has been more than 30 years since 1993. Adding just one penny would generate as much as $1.8 billion a year. However, the fuel levy is regressive. As a tax that collects the same tax total from everyone buying the same amount of gasoline, it is regressive because it takes a higher percent of poorer people’s income. Furthermore, since we are driving less and buying EVs, a fossil fuel tax might become a dinosaur.
• We could do less spending. As a result, then, the federal government would have to reduce the number of projects it funds. Perhaps, then, the states and local governments would have to do more.
• A third possibility is switching the tax to a mileage levy called the VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled). Then it would not matter what you drive. Attached to all vehicles, a device could record how far we drive. Some complain though that, as a tax that can record where we drive, it invades our privacy.

Our Bottom Line: the VMT

If your answer to our title is “yes,” then the VMT is the answer.

So too is a smile: