The Legislature enacted Chapter 835, Statutes of 2014 (SB 1077, DeSaulnier), to study the feasibility of a “road usage charge”—an amount charged to individuals for each mile they drive. Such a charge is also sometimes referred to as a “mileage based user fee.” Several states have begun exploring the idea of funding their transportation systems with a road usage charge as an alternative to the fuel excise taxes. Currently, Oregon is the only state that has implemented a road usage charge program.
CalSTA shall implement a road usage charge pilot program by January 1, 2017. The pilot program is required to (1) analyze various methods for collecting road usage data (including at least one method that does not rely on electronic vehicle location data), (2) collect a minimum of personal information from pilot participants, and (3) protect the privacy and integrity of driver data. Upon completion of the pilot program, CalSTA must submit its findings on the feasibility of implementing a road usage charge to the TAC, the CTC, and the Legislature by June 30, 2018. In January 2015, the CTC chairperson appointed the members of the TAC, which held its first meeting on January 23, 2015.
Based on our analysis, we find that the Governor’s proposals, combined with recent actions by Caltrans, raise several concerns. Specifically, we find that (1) the budget assumes that Caltrans will administer the pilot program, (2) the budget assumes certain design features of the pilot, (3) Caltrans recently signed a contract to commit some of the funds proposed in the budget, and (4) the administration has not provided a complete plan for the requested contract funds.
See pages 6-10:
http://lao.ca.gov/reports/2015/budget/transportation/trans-budget-analysis-030215.pdf