Code of Virginia Code - Chapter 7. Highway Use Fee and This tax is set to expire in 2022 but this year voters get to decide whether to make it permanent. By layering an additional price to driving, the tax can encourage drivers to take road utilization into account when deciding where to live or how often to drive. Virginia 0000010450 00000 n Any customer who has a vehicle registration expiring in July and later will see the fee reduction reflected in their renewal notices, though, due to COVID-19, all driver's licenses and identification cards expiring on or before July 31, 2020, get extensions, to August 31 at the latest. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) recently broke ground on the I-95 Southbound Auxiliary Lane project, intended to help ease a notorious bottleneck on the freeway near Occoquan, Virginia. [47] A P3 is an alternative to traditional public funding of transportation projects in which a local, state, or federal agency partners with a private company to take funding in exchange for a new revenue source. [35] This may resolve some of the privacy concerns but leaves questions for how to handle out-of-state drivers. [6], Diesel fuel is taxed at 24.3 cents per gallon at the federal level and at a combined (all state and local taxes) rate of 37.5 cents at the state level. When the new fee system was implemented last year, that worked out to $109 for electric vehicles and about $19 for a typical fuel-efficient vehicle, based on the 11,600 Questions? 0000039786 00000 n Given the challenges facing the motor fuel tax, one solution, long supported by many economists, is to fund highways by taxing vehicle miles traveled. Weight is an exponential factor for road damage. Led by the DMV, a workgroup tasked with developing the program is slated to deliver an interim report to the Commonwealth thisDecember. Source: U.S. Census Bureau; Federal Highway Administration; authors calculations. [14] EVAdoption, EV Sales Forecasts, accessed July 9, 2020, https://evadoption.com/ev-sales/ev-sales-forecasts/. Externalities can be caused by either production or consumption of a good or service and can be positive or negative. [26] U.S. Comptroller General, Excessive Truck Weight: An Expensive Burden We Can No Longer Support, July 16, 1979, 23, https://www.gao.gov/assets/130/127292.pdf. 0000006244 00000 n State Sen. Janet Howell (D-32nd District) says the highway use fee which applies to cars that average at least 25 miles per gallon and is calculated based on the The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said because of the trends, the General Assembly came up with the highway use fee in 2020. 0000009761 00000 n Calculate speeding fine. 867 35 The tax also aims to counter the negative side effects caused by driving petroleum-burning motor vehicles and their contribution to congestion. Source: Authors calculations from the U.S. Census Bureau, State and Local Government Finance, and Federal Highway Administration. Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Note: Revenue includes motor fuel taxes, motor vehicle taxes, and highway fees. Some states have levied motor fuel taxes since 1919, and all states (including the then territories Alaska and Hawaii) and the District of Columbia had implemented a motor fuel tax by 1946. The fine is $6 for every MPH over the speed limit. 0000001484 00000 n As part of the legislation in 2022 we are pleased to offer an alternative to the highway use fee, Cowardin said. Commercial vehicles are subject to VMT taxes in four states (Kentucky, New Mexico, New York, and Oregon) and several other countries. A tax creditis a provision that reduces a taxpayers final tax bill, dollar-for-dollar. In total, 25 states divert a significant amount of revenue raised from motor fuel taxes to unrelated spending programs like education (Kansas and Texas), tourism (Utah), or wildlife conservation (Florida). The intent of this legislation is to offset the loss in taxes that would have been paid via fuel costs. Clean Special Fuel Plates This year, the Highway Trust Funds current funding tool, the FAST Act, expires, which means federal policymakers should decide on what the future federal highway funding (or maybe spending) looks like. In fact, according to the CBO, in real terms, public maintenance purchases decreased 9 percent between 2003 and 2014 even though nominal spending increased 44 percent. Odometer readings could be done at yearly inspections or by installing an on-board-unit (OBU) that electronically transmits VMT to a central computer. If Virginia wants to encourage a transition to clean energy and electric vehicles, which is absolutely essential to addressing climate change, we will need to look to other options to pay for transportation projects, Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance President Jason Stanford says. For the first time in Virginia history vehicles miles traveled increased, and motor fuel taxes, what has been collected decreased, Jessica Cowardin with the DMV said. [23] Ulrik Boesen, Gas Tax Revenue to Decline as Traffic Drops 38 Percent, Tax Foundation, Mar. If a state is alone in levying a VMT tax, a number of other issues appear. 0000007859 00000 n Essentially, this approach would entail a unique kind of inflation indexing of gas taxes to roughly approximate revenue collections under a VMT. Thirty countries experienced declines in their gas tax levies in U.S. dollars. 0000004286 00000 n A flat fee per mile based on vehicle weight measured by the odometer would be the simplest version of a VMT tax to administer and avoids most privacy issues. Road damage increases with weight of a vehicle but decreases based on the number of axles. [16] Additionally, MPG in new cars actually declined between 1985 and 2005. Then, multiply the car price by the The following vehicles are exempt from the HUF: See Code of Virginias Highway Use Fee page for a full explanation. Looking at total gas tax collections illustrates this decline. go from $51.75 to $44.75, Police search for two inmates after escape from Piedmont Regional Jail, supported by Gov. These increases do not happen in a vacuum and would hurt the economy as a whole as well as disproportionately tax the bottom quintiles of income earners. As vehicles continue to improve in fuel economy and EVs become more common, a VMT tax represents a natural solution to funding highway projects in the future. RICHMOND, Va. (WHSV) As part of a package of new transportation laws passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Ralph Northam this year, you can expect lower vehicle registration fees in the future. The package also comes with an increase of the statewide gas tax by five cents in 2020 and then another 5 cents in 2021, as well as a new highway use fee. The federal motor fuel excise tax has been levied since 1932. 1325 G St NW To get the best experience, you'll need to upgrade to a, Fuel-efficient vehicle, which is a vehicle that has a combined fuel economy of 25 miles per gallon (MPG) or greater, Vehicle made in a year in which the average combined MPG rating for all vehicles produced in that year is 25 MPG or greater, A vehicle with a gross weight greater than 10,000 pounds, A vehicle that is owned by a governmental entity, The fuel tax rate at the time the vehicle was registered. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we depend on the generosity of individuals like you. That means the rest of the expenditures are covered by non-transportation-related tax revenues (see Table 3) collected from people who may not use the roads, or activity not related to road use. Significant concerns regarding privacy must be addressed against a desire for a targeted, equitable, and efficient tax. Mileage-Based User Fee Program 0000007243 00000 n The highway use fee is effective July 1, 2020, and will be updated on a yearly basis. Officers with the Fairfax County Police, Live Fairfax is a bi-weekly column exploring Fairfax County. 2. A vehicle-miles-traveled or mileage-based user fee approach ultimately makes a lot of sense, Stanford said. Assessment Methods Virginia car registration renewal fee -- Highway Use Fee At the federal level, the Highway Trust Fund is projected to run out of money by the end of next year. As an example, an 80,000-pound 5-axle tractor trailer causes the same damage to a road as 9,600 cars even if it only weighs 20 times as much. New law means lower vehicle registration fees in Virginia, Out-of-state drivers would still have to be taxed but likely through a different system. The first law of tax writing is that tax design choices have trade-offs. [6] American Petroleum Institute, Gasoline Taxes, July 2020, https://www.api.org/~/media/Files/Statistics/State-Motor-Fuel-Taxes-Charts-July-2020.pdf. Given the financial situation many states find themselves in due to the coronavirus pandemic, it may be necessary for states to involve private investment to fund crucial projects. Use the US Toll Calculator App! These taxes are levied in a few ways, including per-gallon excise taxes, excise taxes imposed on wholesalers, and general sales taxes that apply to the purchase of gasoline. Converting the existing system to a VMT tax could make tax collection more effective as trucking companies would not have to deal with apportioning tax payments to each state; it could be relatively automatic. 0000004173 00000 n Developing an equitable and effective VMT tax will be no small feat, though. [5] The average state excise tax rate in 2020 is 25.6 cents, but gasoline is taxed at an average rate of 36.4 cents per gallon when other taxes are included. Lower oil prices from the mid-1980s to mid-2000s increased the sale of SUVs, which are heavier than sedans, resulting in increased road damage. [22] Congressional Budget Office, Highway Trust Fund AccountsCBOs Baseline as of March 6, 2020.. Figure 7 is a graph showing the MPG by vehicle type by year that illustrates the big jump in the late 1970s. The actual rate per vehicle should be differentiated based on weight per axle. 0000004009 00000 n [9] This includes both direct users like drivers, but also people who indirectly benefit from highways and road infrastructure (e.g., supply chains and transportation for goods and services), which would be reflected in market prices. The Tax Foundation is the nations leading independent tax policy nonprofit. Neither the [Highway Use Fee] nor the EV Registration fee are intended to suppress the sales of fuel efficient or electric vehicles, but simply recapture the average annual revenue from the foregone gas taxes, Howell said. According to the benefit principle, the people using the highway system should also pay for maintaining the highway system. endstream endobj 868 0 obj <>/Metadata 26 0 R/Pages 25 0 R/StructTreeRoot 28 0 R/Type/Catalog/ViewerPreferences<>>> endobj 869 0 obj <>/ExtGState<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageC/ImageI]/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 0/TrimBox[0.0 0.0 612.0 792.0]/Type/Page/PieceInfo>/PageTransformationMatrixList<0[1.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 -396.0]>>/PageUIDList<0 1329>>/PageWidthList<0 612.0>>>>>>>> endobj 870 0 obj [/Indexed/DeviceRGB 255 892 0 R] endobj 871 0 obj <> endobj 872 0 obj <> endobj 873 0 obj <>stream
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how to calculate virginia highway use fee 2023