States continue to struggle against political resistance to replacing gas taxes with some form of road use charging (RUC). However, as “Governing” reports, in Massachusetts, Illinois, and Washington State, public transit funding needs may catalyze more openness to re-imagining transportation funding as a whole. “’An idea like [RUC] has to travel on the back of a crisis that demands action,’ says Mike Barrett, a Massachusetts state senator who is sponsoring a bill that would establish a mileage-based fee for electric vehicles.”
The article looks at legislative activity in the three states. Despite little optimism that RUC measures will pass this year, officials, business leaders, and labor groups are starting to come to grips with the realization that fuel taxation isn’t a sustainable funding mechanism. “Governing” recaps the past decade of state research and experimentation with RUC, and notes uncertainty at the federal level regarding support for related state and national pilots.