>Pay per mile: A timely tax idea, or a privacy threat?
Once again the Obama administration draft proposal for study of mileage fee spurs interest.
msnbc.com updated 5/5/2011 5:36:53 PM ET
As transportation officials struggle to raise enough tax dollars to maintain the nation’s highway and transit systems, a tentative new proposal could put Americans on the hook for every mile they drive.
Department of Transportation officials have drafted legislation that would study a vehicle tax to track how far drivers travel and charge them by the mile. The proposal would create a “Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office” to conduct trials of the concept.
The draft proposal was first reported this week in Transportation Weekly, a trade publication. A White House spokeswoman told The Hill newspaper that the draft “does not represent the views of the president” and is in no way an administration proposal.
The White House put the brakes on a similar proposal floated early in Obama’s presidency, with then-spokesman Robert Gibbs said that a mileage tax “is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration.”
