HONOLULU – The Hawaii Department of Transportation will hold 14 community meetings across the state to get public feedback on the concept of a road usage charge to fund upkeep of roadways and bridges.
HONOLULU – The Hawaii Department of Transportation will hold 14 community meetings across the state to get public feedback on the concept of a road usage charge to fund upkeep of roadways and bridges.
Meetings are scheduled on Kauai for Friday, March 22, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Wilcox Elementary School cafeteria, and Saturday, March 23, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Koloa Neighborhood Center, Koloa).
“The reality is fuel tax revenue, which provides a third of state highways funding, continues to decrease as cars become more fuel efficient,” said Ed Sniffen, HDOT deputy director for Highways. “We need to look at a long-term replacement for the gas tax that is sustainable and fair to all road users.”
In an RUC system, vehicle owners pay for actual miles driven versus a gasoline tax system where owners pay by the amount of fuel their vehicle consumes. Hawaii is one of a dozen states including California and Oregon that is investigating whether the switch to a pay-per-mile-driven charge is feasible and how it might be implemented.
Hawaii’s study looks at a RUC system as a revenue neutral replacement to the current 16 cents per gallon state fuel tax. As a part of this study, important factors such as sustainability, fairness, information and privacy protection, and other topics will be addressed.
The scheduled meetings are important to share information with Hawaii residents about road usage charges and gather community feedback.
Hawaii residents can also provide input and ask questions via an online community meeting on Thursday, April 18. More information about all meetings will be available on the project website www.hiruc.org
Doesn’t the gas tax help to reduce air pollution by encouraging more fuel-efficient vehicles? The pay-per-mile scheme would remove that incentive. Perhaps some combination?
The fairest way to tax road use is the system we have, a fuel tax. You use more fuel, you pay more tax. Why should a fuel efficient vehicle owner be penalized for owning or spending more money to buy a fuel efficient vehicle? It discourages folks trying to help environmentally.
The county and state leeches will always find ways to drain as much money to fund their pockets, trips to Vegas, and retirements.
The fact that the federal government audited the state and found that the state of Hawaii did not spend a 100 million dollars on road repairs for just one fiscal year shows how corrupt the state of Hawaii is.
This is another triple tax scheme. They probably have that eBay clown tell them how to rob the working class by triple taxing a single item like the bottle fees you get taxed 3 ways.
The state is trying to raise taxes to cover legal fees regarding the great heist. The fraud, waste, and abuse of the Honolulu rail that has cost the entire state nearly 10 billion dollars and counting from an original of estimate and proposed 1 billion dollar rail.
One only has to read the recent articles about nearly 20 consultants receiving over $500,000 a year and many more shibai connected to the rail. It’s another huge criminal case.
The people on Kauai have seen this in several areas on the island and no one wondered why it took years for a mile or so stretch of highway or the 10 million dollar waste on a revitalization wasted luxury project in Lihue and they are already doing it again on Rice st.
I don’t know maybe the puppet masters got the sheep so twisted that they can’t see anything around them but it’s obvious that you don’t need an audit to show malfeasance.
more tax? no. more audits on spending. they’re opening kuhio hwy past hanalei end of april and guarantee more than half the funds weren’t used for fix da road.