With gas tax revenues on the decline as more and more vehicles require less gas, Illinois state Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, is proposing tweaks that would essentially replace the current gas tax structure with a tax by mile system.
Engineers Local 150 Executive Director Marc Poulos sees “road usage charge” legislation as a logical solution.
“The federal government and the state government have motor fuel taxes in place in order to fund highway and bridge construction both in Illinois and in this country and because the federal government continues to pass legislation that increases MPG on vehicles, you have vehicles that pay no motor fuel tax,” Poulos told The Center Square. “In addition to that, you have other forms of power for vehicles, mainly electric vehicles. The fairest and most equitable system is a road usage charge and the reason why is because regardless of how you power a vehicle, the road usage charge will charge every vehicle owner by every mile that they actually drive.”
