OLYMPIA – The Washington State Transportation Commission voted Tuesday afternoon to move forward with recommendations for a proposed “by-the-mile” tax to replace the state’s current gas tax.
They urge the Legislature to take a slow and gradual approach to the pay-per-mile tax over the coming decade, and to start by only applying it to hybrid and electric vehicles. The increased sales of those vehicles in particular is causing a drop in the collection of gas tax revenues, and the problem is certain to grow in the coming years.
State Representative for the 24th District Steve Tharinger says there’s still a lot to hash out, especially as it applies to rural districts like ours.
“Representing a rural district, it has some challenges, right? Because we drive more miles than other folks to get to school and do our errands and do the things we need to do. So if we were to adopt a policy, we obviously have to provide some sort of adjustments for, you know, rural communities, rural districts like the 24th. And there’s a lot of issues that need to be answered before, you know, this gets to a point where it would be adopted by the legislature.”
Washington has one of the highest gas taxes in the country. We’re currently paying just under 50 cents tax per gallon of gas.