The Nevada Department of Transportation plans to hold a public meeting today in Reno and next month in Las Vegas to discuss a pilot project testing the ability to assess a transportation tax based on vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) rather than gallons of fuel purchased.
The state has already developed a device that could be attached to a vehicle and would track the vehicle’s movement, the Las Vegas Sun reported.
“We’d offer a range of alternatives--from odometer readings all the way up to full GPS units that could capture the time of day, the route you are on, the area you are in,” Scott Rawlins, the Nevada DOT’s deputy director, told the Las Vegas Sun. “At the end of the day, it will be the policy makers who ultimately determine what’s right for the public.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nevada is opposed to the plan on privacy grounds: Rebecca Gasca, a public advocate for the organization, said they would oppose “any information-collecting method that would threaten individual privacy rights and allow the government to create an infrastructure for routine surveillance of citizens.”
Gasca told the Las Vegas Sun the ACLU of Nevada would support an annual odometer reading, but no more than that.
“I doubt there will be any answers that mollify our privacy concerns,” she said.
Nevada’s state and local gasoline tax has not increased from 23 cents a gallon since 1992, and the DOT predicts a $6 billion shortfall in its budget by 2016 as a result of falling revenue from more fuel-efficient cars, hybrid cars and electric cars.
