chadhargis wrote:
It one way it makes perfect sense. How to you fairly tax the people who are "passing through" your state and using your roads. Yes, they may have bought fuel in another state, but you're going to get a lot of folks who don't live in your state that buy fuel there. They use the roads too, why should it be "free" for them and the citizens of the state bear the tax burden? This is expecially true for states that have a very low population but lots of people pass through...like Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and most of the midwest states. Mass expanses of interstate highway. You can drive for hours and see nothing but an occasional gas station. If they passed the cost directly to their citizens, then their taxes would be outrageous.
Most light duty vehicles only have 350-450 miles of range on a tank of fuel. Heck my fathers Nissan Frontier double cab 4X4 4.0L can only go 400mi on a 21 Gal tank.
You would have to stop to fuel at least once in most of the big Western States. Even with more range I suspect that even if you skip one state you will have to fill up in the next. If you have a large enough population passing through on an interstate it would tend to average out.
This part of the reason the small eastern States like Jersey have toll roads. The other reason is that it allows NJ to tax people who don't vote. When ever you have taxation without representation it tends to run amok; politicos can use taxes on others to lavish services on their voters. This is why Hawaii taxes the snot out of Hotels and Rental Cars or why Nevada taxes gambling.
There is also the Federal tax on gasoline of $18.4 cents/gal. There is already a urban to rural subsidy built into the system here with the Federal Highway Fund.
Now Diesel is something of a different animal.
A lightly loaded Big Rig getting 7mpg with twin 150gal tanks can drive 2100 miles between fillups. Under the IFTA rules you pay fuel tax to each state you pass through. Trucks are also hell on the roads, the damage to the road increases with the cube of the weight. Our roads would last for centuries without heavy truck traffic. Trucks pay additional taxes to partially offset this. Anything with a GVWR over 55k pays an annual tax, new equipment is taxed, and tires are taxed.
From time to time you will see reps. checking for clear diesel and IFTA stickers at truck scales.
The loophole in this system is when you have someone with a Diesel pickup or car with 600-1000mi of range who does not fall under IFTA. You can fill up once in CA, head east and not have to fill up until Denver.
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