As a member of the State Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, we often get into discussion on funding highway improvement and repairs. There just is not enough money to go around. Since the road budget is funded by the gasoline tax part of the problem is that people are buying hybrid and electric cars which don’t use as much gas and therefore do not pay as much in gas tax.
TheHill.com reports, "The Obama administration has floated a transportation authorization bill that would require the study and implementation of a plan to tax automobile drivers based on how many miles they drive." The story notes this comes after "a March Congressional Budget Office report that supported the idea of taxing drivers based on miles driven."
Among other things, CBO suggested that a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax could be tracked by installing electronic equipment on each car to determine how many miles were driven; payment could take place electronically at filling stations. The issue is that if there are GPS devises in our vehicles the government could keep tabs on where we are at all time. Kind of like George Orwell’s Big Brother.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/159397-obama-floats-plan-to-tax-cars-by-the-mile
