Pain at the pump may soon be an annoyance at the odometer, if a proposal in Olympia to charge motorists for each mile driven gets traction.
As fuel efficient and electric vehicles become more common and gas tax revenue declines, a self-reported, pay-per-mile honor system could generate a new type of funding to help maintain the state’s highways, said state Rep. Jake Fey, D-Tacoma, who introduced the bill.
A road usage charge has been researched and discussed in Washington since 2012, and Fey has twice failed in previous sessions to move the bill out of the House Transportation Committee he leads.
Fey said he was confident the bill would win support this year, pointing to the number of new legislators, as well as lawmaker fatigue over continually dealing with inadequate transportation revenue and delayed projects.
“As we are facing, once again this year, a shortfall in transportation revenue. If we don’t begin this, the strong likelihood is we will continue the pattern,” Fey said at a news conference last week. “Without a new funding solution, Washington roads, bridges and ferries will deteriorate.”
Reema Griffith, executive director of the Washington State Transportation Commission, said it was time for the state to adopt the per-mile charge, noting that many other states are either researching the idea or have already enacted it.
“It is not a novel idea,” she told members of the House Transportation Committee last week. Oregon, Utah, Hawaii and Virginia have existing programs. Virginia’s program has 32,000 participants. Twenty-two more states are researching a similar charge, and 14 others have already or are currently exploring the fee with pilot projects.
Surveys done in Washington show growing support for the charge. In 2017, just 31% of respondents supported it. In 2023, that number grew to 56%.
Rep. Andrew Barkis, R-Olympia, is not among supporters. The ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee said the road charge has “so many questions, so many issues, so many unknowns,” and said it was unlikely it would get any votes from his caucus, let alone support from all Democrats.
Barkis said the state needs to reconsider its climate policies, which he blamed for much of the cost increases on transportation projects, before he would support the new tax. He also believed the gas tax would have to be retired before the per-mile fee was instituted.
“I can’t support the policy as it exists today,” Barkis said. “It just needs a lot of work.”
On its face, the idea is simple enough. Currently, 5% of Washington’s cars are electric or hybrid vehicles. Even more are getting better gas mileage than older models. As drivers of these cars buy less gas, they are contributing less to the upkeep of the state’s roads. By swapping the gas tax — which generates about $1.3 billion a year and pays for a third of state’s transportation budget — for a by-mile tax, the theory is that all drivers will contribute equally.
But the details get a bit more complicated.
Fey said the program would be phased in over a decade, and begin on a voluntary basis.
Beginning in 2027, drivers of electric and hybrid cars could opt in to the program, and have their registration fees waived. Currently, those annual fees are $225 for electric cars and $75 for hybrids. Phase 2 would begin in 2029, when it would be mandatory for these drivers, and voluntary for people with cars that get at least 20 miles per gallon. In phase 3, running 2031-2035, the state would begin charging all drivers.
The charge, at first, would be 2.6 cents per mile, and all paid gas tax would be credited against the charge. For instance, a driver of a car that gets 25 mpg pays about $20 in gas tax every 1,000 miles. With the road usage charge, the same 1,000 miles would cost $26. So the driver would pay just $6 to reconcile their gas tax with the per-mile charge.
Motorists would pay annually as part of vehicle registration fees. Fey said he believed people would honestly report odometer readings, but any discrepancies would be rectified when a vehicle is sold and the odometer reading is verified by the state Department of Licensing, which would administer the program.
Today, gas in Washington is taxed at 49.4 cents per gallon. The revenue it created topped out in fiscal year 2019, when it brought in $1.46 billion, according to numbers from the state Transportation Revenue Forecast Council. The gas tax would continue to be collected even when the per-mile charge is in full effect.
The federal gas tax remains at 18.4 cents per gallon, unchanged since 1993.
Fey said he opted for self-reporting over GPS tracking due to privacy concerns, but said people could voluntarily use such technology in the future to track their own mileage.
The program would allow people to be credited for out-of-state miles, and get a “standard mileage deduction” of 200 miles per year.
The road charge would only apply to passenger vehicles, meaning the heaviest machines on the road — those over 10,000 pounds like semitrucks and RVs — wouldn’t pay.
In an interview, Fey said he understood that “the heavier the vehicle, the more the damage” done to roads, but wanted the program to be simple. He said it was likely vehicle fees would go up, based on weight, as part of the Legislature’s revenue package this year.
Legislators are looking at a $1 billion shortfall for transportation funding in the upcoming 2025-27 biennium, which begins July 1, due to increasing construction costs and falling gas tax revenue.
Lawmakers have warned that projects will be canceled or delayed.
“I get the complaints: ‘You’re not maintaining this, you’re not maintaining that.’ Well, we don’t have the resources for that,” Fey said. “It’s not some type of frill we’re talking about here. It is something everybody uses.”
