On the face of it, the proposed VMT fee sounds like it’s meant to generate more revenue, be invasive, and make it impossible to hide from taxes by buying a low-mileage vehicle. Essentially, it’s designed to make tea partiers’ heads explode. But maybe there’s enough time in the next 11 years for them to cool off and consider that it might be for the best.
I called Denny Zane of Move LA, a transit-focused nonprofit, for more information. He said a VMT fee is one of many attempts to come up with a way to fund our highways that’s “Both reliable and fair, and increases rather than declines as a revenue stream while the use of the transportation systems increase as population grows. We need revenue streams that can help meet those needs. The VMT fee is better than the gas tax in that respect.”
Together, the six Southern California counties pushing for this make up an entity called the Southern California Association of Governments. Southern California is a car-centric community that spent decades fighting against public transit expansion. There is grave concern here regarding the recent news that the federal Highway Trust Fund is about to be completely drained in July. When that happens, the federal support we count on to keep our crumbling highways and bridges taped together will vanish.