LIHUE — Sonja Kass made it clear she’s not a fan of the state’s proposal to fund the upkeep of roads and bridges with a road usage charge.
“I think it’s a bad idea,” the Kauai woman said Friday night. “It’s disincentivizing clean transportation. They tried to do it in California and, in the end, they stuck with the gas tax increase.”
Kass also brought up privacy as one of the things that will go out the window with the new system.
“Who wants to really report all the numbers to the government?” Kass said. “The gas tax works. It’s so easy to collect. Why change it?”
The Hawaii Department of Transportation is holding 14 meetings statewide to receive public feedback on the concept of a road usage charge to fund the upkeep of roadways and bridges. If implemented, the road usage charge would replace the gasoline tax.
One of those meetings was Friday at Wilcox Elementary School, and about 30 people attended. The second Kauai meeting is 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. today at Koloa Neighborhood Center.
“We’re looking at revenue sustainability,” said Scott Urada, with the DOT Highways Division. “We’re doing a study about the state fuel tax. Whenever you buy gas at the pump, there is federal, state and county tax. For the fuel tax, as we look into the future and even now when we look at the trend, it’s starting to level off and decline.”
Urada equates the leveling off as a product of higher-efficiency vehicles.
“It’s because the cars are getting more fuel efficient,” Urada said. “The electric vehicle and alternative fuel vehicles. It’s a trend that we are concerned about.”
He said this isn’t a done deal.
“It’s just a study,” he said. “It’s going to take away that state fuel tax and replace it with a road usage charge. How would people feel about it?”
The charge would be based on the number of miles a person drives.
“Some vehicles may actually benefit and some vehicles might actually pay more,” Urada said.
Some residents in attendance didn’t share optimism about the possibility of going to a usage-based tax system. One compared it to toll roads on the mainland.
“They’re just trying to figure out different ways to get money,” said the resident, who declined to give her name. “It doesn’t get used for what it was collected for in the first part.”
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Ryan Collins, county reporter, can be reached at 245-0424 or rcollins@thegardenisland.com.
