An Economic Analysis of Oregon’s 2007 Road User Fee Pilot Program Essay

I. Introduction and Background The accelerator assess has provided revenue for the federal official and State Highway Trust Fund (HTF) for decades however, the valuate rates collect remained stagnate leading to the funds depletion. The HTF is responsible for funding highway and kitty transit projects and also maintenance of those projects at the federal official and State level. In 2005 around 80 percent of funding for all projects came from the gasoline levy (Kim, Porter, Whitty, Svadlenak Lareson, Capps, Imholt & Person 2008, pg. 37). Thus, it is vital for the HTF to be a revenue collecting scheme that can replace the gasoline tax. operating room has recently begun testing an choice revenue collection program to fund their HTF. Currently, State gasoline tax is set at 24 cents per-gallon and that is on top of the Federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents, which only, 18.3 cents is used for roads, the total tax equals to 42.4 cents per-gallon (McMullen, Zhang, & Nakahara, 2010, pg . 360) (Austin & Dinan, 2012 pg.2). The gasoline tax has not been raised in years and is unable to keep up with arouse-efficient technologies. Consequently, the Federal government has had to allocate funds to States HTF for projects along with States having to borrow money ca-ca their other accounts. Therefore Oregon draw a bead ond the 2007 highway User Fee cowcatcher Program to test if a vehicle mileage traveled (VMT) tax is a feasible solution to the gasoline tax. Oregons propose program is in response to new fuel-efficient vehicles and corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards that have forced the automotive industry to rise miles-per-gallon in new vehicles to help combat climate change. It is estimated that CAFE standards have take down the gasoline tax revenue around twenty percent (Austi... ... evaluation of Oregons fomite-Miles-Traveled Revenue Collection System. Transportation Research posting 2079 37-44. Print.McMullen, Starr, Lei Zhang, and Kyle Nakahar a. distributional impacts of changing from a gasoline tax to a vehicle-mile tax for abstemious vehicles A case study of Oregon. Transport Policy 17 359-366. Print.Rufolo, Anthony, and doubting Thomas Kimpel. Responses to Oregons Experiment in Road Pricing . Transportation Research Board 2079 1-7. Print.Thomas, Michael , and Kevin Heaslip. Technological Change and the Lowest Common Denominator Problem an Analysis of Oregons Vehicle Miles Travelled Fee Experiment . Journal of City and Town focussing 2 1-23. Web. 6 May 2014.Whitty, James. Oregons Mileage Fee Concept and Road User Fee Pilot Program Final Report . Oregon Department of Transportation 1 Nov. 2007 iv-92. Print.