WASHINGTON — We’ve been telling you about Washington lawmakers’ “pay-by-mile” proposal to supplement the current gas tax. They say your tax money is used to repair roads and build new highways, but more is needed for future projects.
The average Washington driver pays roughly $265 a year in gas tax, but if the pay-by-mile is passed, you’ll pay around $350 yearly instead.
Right now, there are 5.8 million licensed drivers in the state of Washington. Most of them pay a 49-cent tax on every gallon of gas they buy.
“The gas tax is currently the largest single source of revenue for the state,” State Representative Jake Fey said.
That money goes to building and repairing all state roads, but lawmakers say with the increase in electric and more fuel-efficient cars, the gas tax is outdated.
“Our transportation system is in need of adequate revenues, and also infrastructure becomes more expensive to build or maintain,” Fey said.
To tackle the decline, Rep. Fey is proposing a pay-by-mile initiative in an attempt to tax everyone the same.
“This is trying to get everybody onto a similar place where everybody is paying close to the same amount of money for every mile they drive on the system,” Fey said.
In the new plan, Washingtonians would be charged 2.6 cents for every mile driven.
The average American drives about 13,476 miles every year on average. When you take that number of miles driven per year and break that down, drivers could pay about $90 more per year on a pay-by-mile plan.
Drivers like James Connerly tell us they don’t think this is fair.
“Well I’m not in favor of changing the system as it is now, that’s the bottom line,” Connerly said.
If the bill is passed, pay-by-mile won’t be implemented for everyone until 2031.
Washington isn’t the only state trying this plan. Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Hawaii already have some form of pay-by-mile implemented, but Washington’s proposal has the highest rate.
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