Drivers might pay road taxes by mile

North Carolinians are driving more miles every year, but they're buying less gas.

Although better fuel economy sounds great for the pocketbook and good for the planet, it spells trouble for our long-term reliance on gas-tax money to finance transit and highway needs.

After spending more than it takes in for several years, the federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to run out of money for road projects by 2009.

So, as part of a $16.5 million nationwide study over the next two years, 450 Triangle drivers will help road-test a new way to pay for transportation -- by the mile, not by the gallon.

"In the old days, when cars got 13 or 14 miles to a gallon, we were pretty flush with cash," said David J. Forkenbrock of the University of Iowa Public Policy Center. "But we're already seeing major drops in the revenues coming in. We know it's going to get worse."

Forkenbrock will oversee the Road User Charge Study in North Carolina and five other states.

Replacing the fuel tax with a mileage fee would be a long-range idea -- and possibly a long shot. Federal officials are mulling privacy issues raised by the Iowa study and its use of satellite navigation technology.

Lew Rentel of Morrisville drives one reason our road money is running low -- a Toyota Prius.

Rentel, 69, used to drive a hulking Lincoln Aviator that burned up a gallon of gas every 13 miles. With 48.6 cents in state and federal taxes per gallon, he was paying the government 3.7 cents for every mile he drove.

But he ditched the luxury SUV for what he called patriotic reasons: to help fight global warming and cut our need for foreign oil. Now with a thrifty hybrid that gets 44 miles per gallon, Rentel has cut his tax payments to barely a penny per mile.

He realizes that people like him are doing less to help pay for the roads.

"Something's going to have to be done," said Rentel, a retired UPS executive. "You're either going to tax by the mile, or you're going to tax some other way."

The federal Highway Trust Fund relies mostly on gas-tax money to pay for state road construction. The fund is expected to drop from an $8.1 billion surplus this year to a $1.7 billion deficit by 2009.

A study commission is looking for new ways to pay the bills. Congress has held the federal gas tax at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993. The Bush administration wants more tolls, private investment and local funding.

North Carolina collects 30.2 cents per gallon of gas.

Troubling trends

North Carolina gas sales have dipped since 2004. The state gas tax has jumped 5.6 cents per gallon higher since then, pushing total gas-tax collections up slightly to a peak of $1.23 billion in 2006. If gas sales keep falling without more rate hikes, tax collections will decline, too.

Traffic counts are climbing twice as fast as the state population, and road construction costs are also rising. Every $100 worth of asphalt, steel, concrete and other highway ingredients that North Carolina road builders bought in 2002 costs more than $175 today.

The mileage fee idea is fueled by the same forces that are pushing North Carolina into the business of collecting tolls from expressway drivers. North Carolina and 14 other states joined Congress in commissioning the Iowa study to weigh collecting user fees for city streets and rural highways as well.

The Iowa researchers will outfit volunteers' cars with computers and satellite gear to record where and how far they drive. Each month, the volunteers will receive sample bills for how many miles they have driven. Their mileage fees will be compared to the per-gallon taxes they pay now. Congress is considering a call to boost new-car fuel efficiency standards by about 40 percent, to an average of 35 mpg, by 2020. By then, some Americans will be driving cars that use no gas or diesel fuel -- and pay no fuel taxes. Honda will sell a limited-production hydrogen fuel-cell car in 2008. Other high-efficiency engines are also in the works.