With each gallon of gas pumped in the United States since 1932, drivers have been paying taxes. The revenue is used for road repairs and public transportation such as train and bus systems.
Currently, the Fed takes 18.4 cents per gallon for gas or 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel. State gas taxes range from a national high of 61 cents for gas in Pennsylvania, to a low of 8.95 cents in Alaska.
But environmentally motivated improvements in fuel efficiency and the move to electric vehicles (EVs) translate to less gas sold, resulting less tax revenue collected.
State and federal governments are looking for a new way to fund transportation. Through numerous studies by transportation organizations, they have landed on mileage-based user fees (MBUF); vehicle miles traveled fees (VMT); road user charges (RUCs), or highway use fees (HUF). The acronyms all mean the same thing: Drivers pay a tax for each mile traveled….