Pete Buttigieg Floats Taxing Drivers by the Mile: It ‘Shows a Lot of Promise’
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Friday he believed a possible new mileage tax “showed a lot of promise.”
“If we believe in that so-called user pays principle … the gas tax used to be the obvious way to do it, it’s not anymore,” Buttigieg said in the interview with CNBC’s Kayla Tausche. “So a so-called vehicle miles traveled tax, or mileage tax, whatever you want to call it, could be the way to do it.”
The White House has been seeking to formulate a way to pay for a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure plan. Buttigieg said Thursday the plan should constitute “generational” investment. Mileage taxes have traditionally been criticized for falling disproportionately on lower-income people who have to driver farther to work, but Democrats have increasingly viewed them as a possible way to supplement fuel taxes.
TFW you’re concerned that student debt cancellation will unfairly benefit rich kids but love to tax folks who can’t afford to live close to work. https://t.co/J237vsEgO1
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) March 26, 2021
Buttigieg said raising the gas tax was still on the table, but that it should not be expected to provide the level of revenue the feds were trying to raise.
“The gas tax has traditionally been part of how we fund the Highway Trust fund, but we know that it can’t be the answer forever, because we’re going to be using less and less gas,” Buttigieg said. “We’re trying to electrify the vehicle fleet. So if there’s a way to do it that doesn’t increase the burden on the middle class, we can look at it, but if we do, we’ve got to recognize that’s still not going to be a long-term answer.”
Watch above via CNBC.
