States are looking for new ways of taxing motorists as they seek to pay for highway and bridge repair and improvements without relying on the per-gallon gasoline tax widely viewed as all but obsolete.
Among the leading ideas: Taxing drivers for how many miles they travel rather than how much gasoline they buy. Minnesota and Oregon already are testing technology to keep track of mileage. Other states, including Washington and Nevada, are preparing similar projects.
The gas tax is great, with all of the incentives in the right place. Rewards lighter vehicles which hurt roads less and rewards more fuel efficient vehicles which destroy the world just a little more slowly.
There may come a day when the revenue generating potential of a gas tax is destroyed due to changes in vehicle technology, but right now politicians really seem to believe (or claim to believe) that expensive and invasive technology coupled with an explicit monthly or annual bill from The Government will be preferable to small increases in the largely invisible gas tax.
I do not understand.