ODOT’s Alternative to the Gas Tax Is Stuck in Neutral

State Sen. Bruce Starr (R-Dundee) Credit: Courtesy of the office of Sen. Bruce Starr

On March 25, the Legislature’s Joint
Committee on Transportation discussed two related problems that could turn its
future into roadkill.

First, the Oregon Department of
Transportation’s budget calls for spending far in excess of projected revenue.
What’s more, ODOT over relies on revenue from the gas tax, which is vulnerable
to inflation, greater fuel efficiency and the rise of electric vehicles (whose
owners don’t pay the gas tax).

It’s not a new problem, as Transportation
Committee vice chairman Sen. Bruce Starr (R-Dundee) noted last week. Back in
the 2001 session, Starr was part of a group that recognized ODOT would one day
be in the spot it’s in today: hostage to a tax that will become obsolete. That
year, Starr and his colleagues formed the Road User Fee Task Force, which still
exists.

That group gave birth to Oregon’s
first-in-the-nation pilot program to charge drivers by the mile, using mileage
counters in their vehicles. The program, OReGO, has won national recognition
since it went live in 2015. The problem is, the voluntary program has never
attracted many participants: 3,189 over the past decade, according to ODOT, of
whom just 788 are enrolled today.

Credit: Source: Oregon Department of Transportation

The tiny number of users means OReGO
brings in almost no money — and because its contractors can only spread their
fixed costs out over a few vehicles, administration consumes about 40% of the
revenue, a bite that lawmakers and state finance officials say must come down
sharply if the program grows.

Starr is focused on a significant portion
of motorists he thinks should be enrolled in OReGO: owners of the 107,825
electric vehicles on Oregon’s roads.

He notes an ODOT task force finding last
year that EV drivers pay less to use Oregon roads than owners of conventional
internal combustion vehicles. That may reflect a desire to subsidize
electrification, Starr says, but it ignores the wear and tear that electric
vehicles put on roads (their batteries are very heavy) and places an additional
burden on conventional vehicles.

Here’s a comparison, based on the average
number of miles a typical Oregon motorist drives:

Electric vehicle users pay less to use Oregon roads. Credit: Source: Oregon Department of Transportation

Starr says he’s not sure when he and his
colleagues will have a plan and the support to pass a funding package for ODOT,
but he wants that legislation to beef up OReGO — and level the playing field.

“EV drivers aren’t paying their fair
share,” Starr says. “I believe that they should, and we have a tool in OReGO
that could cause them to do that.”

—This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit investigative newsroom for the state of Oregon. Learn more at oregonjournalismproject.org.