State Continues To Explore Replacing Gas Tax

 PennDOT continues looking into replacing the state gas tax with a fee based on mileage, also called a mileage-based user fee, or MBUF.  

Image: PennDOT

The department has been exploring the fee as part of The Eastern Transportation Coalition, a coalition of

17 states and the District of Columbia investigating how a MBUF would affect eastern states. Pilot programs involving passenger vehicles and trucks began in 2018.

So far, the programs have revealed that, depending on how rates are set, rural driver in Pennsylvania may fare better with MBUF than they do with the gas tax, PennDOT said in an update on its website.

But, while Pennsylvanians in general like a "pay for what you use model," they also have "misperceptions" about the fairness of MBUF toward some vehicles. 

Why get rid of the gas tax? The tax was instituted more than 100 years ago, when fuel use was an effective way to figure out how much a driver used the road, PennDOT said on its Facebook page. "With today's cars going farther on less gas (and some using none)," figuring out how much drivers use the road based on fuel use is "an approach [that] no longer works for our roads," PennDOT said in the same post, which features a meme with the slogan "Modern vehicles need modern funding."