Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont requested a $1.5 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration to help fund a pilot project to test a mileage-based road user fee with a sample of volunteer drivers. If successful and the public indicates support, a road-use fee could become a reality in ten years and transform how the state pays for highway construction, said Jennifer Cohan, secretary of the Delaware Department of Transportation.
"It would completely eliminate the gas tax," said Cohan, who also chairs the I-95 Corridor Coalition, an organization of East Coast states that sent the grant application to federal officials. "If you drive 10 miles, you are going to pay for 10 miles."
Officials of the I-95 Corridor Coalition estimate that East Coast states along I-95 will need to double their road construction spending to $71 billion by 2040. The only viable way to do that, they say, is to find a sustainable funding alternative to fuel taxes.
Gas tax money is expected to decline during the upcoming decade as more people drive electric and other fuel-efficient vehicles.
