Oregon Experiments With Mile Fee In Place of Gas Tax

Lee Younglove is motoring about town in a way that could be the future of driving in America: A state-installed GPS unit in his Subaru Outback is counting every mile he's logging, and a special transmitter in the car will tell the pump at one of two Portland gas stations how many miles he has traveled. Soon, as part of a state experiment, he'll be paying 1.2 cents for every mile but won't be charged the state's 24-cents-a-gallon gas tax.

That's because Oregon sees little future in its gas tax, which has been at the same level since 1993. Voters don't want to raise it, inflation has eaten much of its value and fuel-efficient cars such as hybrids are reducing collections.

As an alternative, the state is experimenting with a "virtual tollway" system in which a road-user fee would replace the gas tax.

The user fee is already a reality in 280 volunteers' cars, in which systems worth about $200 each were installed this spring. Volunteers are paid $300 each.

Later this year, the state will stop collecting the gas tax at the pump for some of these volunteers and start charging the mileage fee. Another group will pay 10 cents a mile during rush hour and fourth-tenths of a cent for each mile at other times. The fees are for in-state travel only. A third set of volunteers will be a control group, still paying the gas tax.

Results of the yearlong experiment, along with recommendations, will be presented to the Legislature three years from now so lawmakers can decide whether to impose the nation's first statewide user-fee system, aided by satellites.

The trial already has raised questions about whether Big Brother has found a new way to track motorists. But the state insists the GPS units are rigged only to count miles.

"Some people chose not to participate because they didn't want the government in any way to be tracking," Younglove, 62, a retired information technology specialist, said about volunteers' initial meeting with state officials.

James Whitty, the manager of the state's project, said tracking data aren't being recorded in the state-installed units, "but some just don't believe it."

"There's no tracking at all because we don't want to track. We don't care," he said.

But GPS technology is designed to identify whereabouts, and it's conceivable that insurance companies could force motorists to enable tracking features unless a state bans it, said Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Other state and federal agencies, as well as law enforcement, also could be interested in the tracking data, she said.

"Somebody could say, `I think my husband is cheating on me -- can you tell me if he's in this neighborhood?'" Coney added. "Insurance companies will want to use it: If you want us to insure you, you'll have to give us your GPS information. ... Information is currency."

Whitty said that when the Oregon Legislature officially considers replacing the tax with a mileage fee, the state transportation agency would propose measures addressing outsider access to GPS tracking information.

Oregon has a history of trailblazing with motoring revenues. In 1919 it became the first state to impose a gas tax, and its trial with a road-user fee system is being watched around the nation as other states struggle with transportation budget shortfalls, officials said.

"It's a pretty novel approach," said Matt Sundeen of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Only a few states, such as Ohio and Washington, have been able to persuade voters to raise the gasoline tax to cover the rising cost of maintaining roads, experts said.