With gas tax revenues sliding, Illinois weighs road mileage tax

With gas tax revenues on the decline as more and more vehicles require less gas, Illinois state Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, is proposing tweaks that would essentially replace the current gas tax structure with a tax by mile system.

Engineers Local 150 Executive Director Marc Poulos sees “road usage charge” legislation as a logical solution.

“The federal government and the state government have motor fuel taxes in place in order to fund highway and bridge construction both in Illinois and in this country and because the federal government continues to pass legislation that increases MPG on vehicles, you have vehicles that pay no motor fuel tax,” Poulos told The Center Square. “In addition to that, you have other forms of power for vehicles, mainly electric vehicles. The fairest and most equitable system is a road usage charge and the reason why is because regardless of how you power a vehicle, the road usage charge will charge every vehicle owner by every mile that they actually drive.”

As many as 1,000 motorists would be tabbed to take part in the pilot program under Villivalam’s legislation, with all of them required to report their vehicle’s fuel efficiency and mileage to the Illinois Department of Transportation. Drivers who pay more in the gas tax than they would have in mileage would be granted a refund as other elements of the program are still being tested.

As it is, Illinois motorists now pay the second-highest motor fuel tax in the country at 66 cents per gallon.

“People that understand what the road usage charge is, they like it,” Poulos adds. “People that do not understand what it is, don't like it.”

While Illinois would be just one of several states weighing such legislation, not every lawmaker in Springfield is on board with it.

“It’s just another tax, another attack on the middle class, which is already struggling to buy health insurance, struggling to pay their bills, including the accelerated price of electricity because of the green energy scam,” state Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland, told The Center Square. “All the things that the Democrats are doing is attacking the middle class, making it harder for working families and I think it's going to continue the exodus out of the state because people are just taxed to death.”