>>1536543Trucking industry is rabidly against it. If you think of a gas tax as a pollution tax it seems better in that big trucks are paying more.
Ideally with a VMT tax you could charge different amounts depending on the type/weight of vehicle. Politically that would be difficult.
Privacy concerns were huge as always. For some reason people were more comfortable with their odometers being read by private companies than the government.
There is thought on if everyone uses a GPS to track miles that you can institute a more equitable congestion pricing and tax collection. For example the miles on city streets would fund the city while miles driven on highways could go to the appropriate jurisdiction. Time of day pricing changes would be possible with rush hour costing more and rates reducing when there is excess capacity. Academics have been for congestion pricing and have done tons of research on it for decades but it's never gone very far politically or culturally.
The argument for a VMT tax in my area was heavily dependent on the increase in electric/fuel efficient vehicles causing the value of the gas tax to erode and not be worth as much. The state department of transportation had research that showed overall fuel economy in the state was increasing for a decade, until the most recent year when it dropped. They believe it dropped because of the strong economy and people going out and buying bigger trucks and SUVs.
