Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
Interesting. The program rewards those with worse fuel economy because it refunds taxes paid at the pump. Using the calculator, it said at 30 MPG, I would lose money compared to just paying the taxes at the pump. At 20 MPG, it said I would break even. I'd need to drive something that gets worse than 20 MPG for the program to make sense.
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That is one way to look at it. Another way is that everyone that uses roads should help pay for them and people that use them more (drive more) should pay more. Fuel mileage has nothing to do cost to build and maintain roads. A 2.5 ton Model X takes up just as much space as a 2.5 ton Land Cruiser.
Oregon's purpose of going to a fee per mile is to raise more money for transportation and decouple transportation funding from fuel use. It makes sense that most vehicles would pay more under the new system. I see the current bill as a way to smooth the transition. The more people they move voluntarily the better.
The calculator doesn't factor in the reduced registration fee but that is highly dependent on number of miles driven in the 2 year registration period. It could work out well for people that have multiple cars but don't drive them very often.