High-tech solution may replace gas tax to refill road fund.

Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 7/8/03): Oregon's current highway user tax is based on the amount of gasoline used, at a rate of 24 cents per gallon. A source was misquoted in a story on Page A1 on Monday.

The problem is fuel efficiency.

Forty years ago, nearly all cars burned a gallon of gasoline every eight to 10 miles they traveled.

The miles per gallon average is about double that now. And with carmakers flocking to gas-electric hybrids, and fuel cell technology almost ready for its leap from the drawing board to the showroom, the amount of gasoline consumed per mile traveled is poised for a nationwide nosedive.

So two years ago, the Oregon Legislature gave a transportation task force this nut to crack: How do you stabilize the state's dwindling highway fund - traditionally fueled by a per-gallon gasoline tax - when cars are burning less gasoline than ever and gas tax increases are a politically taboo subject for statehouses across the country?

"This is not something that's going away," says James Whitty, administrator of the Oregon Road User Fee Task Force. "Fuel efficiency is going to be even more available, and we need to respond to that."

And yes, to Whitty, all that fuel savings really does present a problem.

While some states are shifting to a greater reliance on toll booths, the Oregon task force has recommended a technological approach.

It has turned to researchers in the Mobile Technology Solutions Laboratory at Oregon State University's School of Engineering for guidance on how to track every vehicle's mileage.

User fees can then be assessed on the basis of distance driven between fuel stops rather than the amount of gas used.

"The rationale (for developing a new system) is that we're stuck at a gas tax rate of 24 cents per mile," Whitty says. "The last raise was in 1991, and politically it's just not acceptable to raise that rate right now."

Existing technology is expected to be adapted for use in the mileage-based system by late this year, and a two-year pilot study - with mileage-tracking devices placed in the cars of 400 volunteers - is expected to begin next spring.

"We are working with vendors right now," Whitty says. "Provided the pilot comes out with satisfactory information, we could propose something as early as the 2007 (legislative) session."

Two versions of the technology are currently under consideration - a satellite-aided Global Positioning System receiver that would track but not transmit vehicle movement, and an electronic "tag" that would tap into a vehicle's odometer data.

In either case, motorists would be charged for the exact number of miles they drive.

The most likely mechanism would be sensors installed at gas stations that could read mileage information gathered between fill-ups by cars' on-board devices.

"The best way is to try to work it in with what they're already doing, at the pump," Whitty says. "That's our aim, is to make it easy and simple."

Some critics have jumped on the suggested use of GPS technology, complaining that it would be a violation of privacy and an intrusion by government into drivers' personal lives.

But David Porter and David Kim, who are working on the system together at OSU, point out the devices being considered would contain GPS receivers and short-range transmitters readable only by the gas station sensors, rather than long-range transmitters that allow standard GPS units to be tracked around the world.

"These devices are passive," Porter says. "That's something we always try to stress, to alleviate the fear that this could become some kind of a big brother device. There's absolutely no way these devices can be tracked."

Either the GPS-based system or the odometer tag would cost an estimated $150 per unit, and with 4 million vehicles on the road in Oregon, retrofitting has been ruled out as an option.

So Whitty and the task force members have had discussions with automobile manufacturers, and have made headway in providing for factory-installation of devices that could become a nationwide standard for collecting highway user fees.

The idea is that all new cars sold in the state after the effective date of a new program would have mileage sensors. The owners of those cars would be charged the per-mile fee - 1.25 cents per mile would be roughly equivalent to the current gas tax of 24 cents per gallon - each time they purchase fuel.

During a phase-in period of several years, the gas tax would remain on the books for cars not equipped with mileage sensors but would not apply to those paying the per-mile fee.

"We have worked out the logistics of that," Whitty says. "We could do it right at the gas station. But the idea is not to charge people two taxes; that was never part of the plan."

The per-mile fee would not apply to out-of-state motorists, and it also would not be assessed for mileage accumulated by local drivers who travel to other states.

The GPS-based units could be programed to omit mileage outside Oregon's borders, and if odometer tags are used Whitty says radio towers at border routes would automatically turn them off when drivers leave the state and turn them on again when they return.

"We're definitely looking at the GPS solution with a little more hope," says Porter, at OSU. "The GPS solution would require less infrastructure."

As complicated as the system may sound, Whitty says it's just a new application of existing technology - and is critically important if the state's highway fund is to keep pace with road maintenance and construction needs.

Based on economists' projections of funding needs and the automobile industry's forecast for future fuel efficiency standards, Whitty says the state has until about 2014 before the gas tax will become virtually unusable as an across-the-board user fee.

"So we have about 10 years before that happens," he says. "And I predict that the longer we go, the more compelling the case is for doing this.