LOS ANGELES (KABC) — California roads are maintained via gasoline tax income, however that is dwindling with the rise within the collection of electrical automobiles.A brand new pilot program objectives to rate drivers for the usage of the roads in accordance with how a lot they in fact pressure – putting off California’s gasoline tax and substitute it with a mileage tax as an alternative.Caltrans spokesperson Lauren Prehoda mentioned keeping up roadways prices round between $8 billion to $9 billion a yr with nearly all of the price range coming from California’s gasoline taxes, which can be accrued each and every time a motive force fills their gasoline tank.In keeping with Caltrans, California now has greater than 1.2 million hybrid or electrical automobiles registered within the state, which means that gasoline tax revenues are falling.”On reasonable, Californians pay about $300 a yr in state gasoline taxes,” Prehoda mentioned. “EVs have a $100 (annual) registration price… that is a $200 million a yr loss.”To bridge that hole, Caltrans is proposing what it calls the California Highway Fee, which might tax drivers at the collection of miles they pressure.Mileage might be tracked by means of plugging an digital tool right into a car, the usage of a car’s integrated monitoring device or by means of merely filing footage of the car’s odometer, in step with Caltrans”Everybody has other ranges of convenience after we’re managing our knowledge between potency and privateness, and that’s the reason why it is actually essential to have choices from low tech to top tech,” Prehoda mentioned.Caltrans will get started a six-month pilot program in June, designed to check the Highway Fee program. Volunteers can signal as much as have their miles tracked, fill out some surveys and earn as much as $400 for collaborating.It is as much as the state Legislature to make a decision if the Highway Fee must in fact substitute the gasoline tax.Copyright © 2024 KABC Tv, LLC. All rights reserved.
