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Interstate 84 traffic in Portland.

(The Oregonian)

After 12 years of talking about replacing the gas tax, experimenting with new technologies and running pilot projects, the Oregon Department of Transportation says it's ready to launch a new pay-as-you-drive road tax.

Check that, they're ready to launch a public trial of the program with 5,000 volunteers.

On Monday, ODOT officials stopped in Portland as part of a statewide "listening tour" to gather public input on the first-in-the-nation proposal for a gas tax alternative.

Here are seven things that we learned from the meeting, which attracted about 20 people:

1. You can sign up to be a road-tax guinea pig, er, volunteer starting July 1, 2015. In January, ODOT will set up a "road user charge" website that will allow people to sign up for details on how to become a volunteer.

2. Drivers will be charged 1.5 cents a mile. They will be able to track their distances using everything from a GPS tracker to an odometer device to a daily diary. "GPS will be the most hassle-free option," said Michelle Godfrey, a road usage charge program spokeswoman. "But it's also the option that people tend to dislike the most." Yeah, that's not going to be popular because the words "government and GPS" go together like peanut butter and sardines. At the same time, keeping a daily diary seems to be the equivalent of a hassle tax.

3. Trial drivers will get a monthly bill, with ODOT sending rebate checks to offset money spent on the 30-cents-per-gallon gas tax. And that's where things start sounding a bit convoluted. Rebate checks? So, would drivers be just giving the government an interest-free loan for road construction?

4. This is just one step in a long process to possibly build momentum for a widespread road-user tax. From the pamphlet that was handed out to meeting participants: "Oregon's Senate Bill 810 was the first legislation in the U.S. to establish a RUCP for state transportation funding. The bill authorized ODOT to set up a mileage collection system for volunteer motorists, assess a charge of 1.5 cents per mile for up to 5,000 cars and light commercial vehicles, and issue a gas tax refund to participants. The volunteer program will not be another pilot project but rather the start of an alternate method of generating sustainable revenue to pay for Oregon highways. (View the results of ODOT's 2013 Road Usage Charge Pilot Project here.)"

5.

ODOT will use a private vendor to handle the accounting and management of the road tax.

6. Although ODOT is promising stiff penalties for fraudulent reporting, the state guarantees that it will protect "personally identifiable" information.

7. In case you haven't heard, the old, straightforward model of paying for roads is a stinker.

Gas taxes have failed to keep pace with construction costs. The federal gas tax -- 18.4 cents per gallon – was last raised in 1993. Passenger vehicles are becoming incredibly fuel-efficient. People are driving less. Yet a bill mandating a VMT fee for all new vehicles getting 55 mpg or above died in the 1993 Legislature. "The road that Oregon DOT can build in 2014 is less than half of what it could build in 1993 for the same amount of money," one of the PowerPoint slides declared.

Everyone seems to agree: Something different needs to be done or the state's roads and bridges will start crumbling apart in the first state to implement the gas tax in 1919.

So, who's itching to sign up for the road tax?

Would you pay more less under the road tax? Here's a calculator to help you figure it out.

To figure out how much you pay in gas tax, do this: Figure out how many miles per month you drive, divide that by your vehicle's miles per gallon and multiply that by .3.

To figure out your mileage tax, figure out how many miles per month and multiply it by .015.

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-- Joseph Rose