This Tax Could Never Come to Wyoming, Right?

By Sven R Larson, Ph.D.

How would you feel about a new kind of tax to fund our highways, one that was based on the miles you drive? Would you like to see it added to the taxes we already pay?

In anticipation of topics that will be discussed in the interim committee season, please take a moment and consider the following idea.

Suppose the legislature, in its 2020 session, were presented with a proposal where:

1. You would have to place a GPS device in your car;
2. The device would be read once every year by the state or whoever the state delegated the authority to;
3. The state would calculate how many miles you have driven on state highways during the year; and
4. The total tax would depend on miles driven, as well as on your vehicle, so that pick-up trucks would be burdened with the highest tax and Priuses would escape with the lowest rate.

Wyomingites drive more miles per year than residents of any other state: in 2017, there were 57 percent more miles driven per licensed driver on Wyoming roads than in the nation as a whole. We are also relatively fond of pick-up trucks and other larger vehicles. This is natural, given our rough climate, but it also means that if there ever were a miles-based vehicle tax that would target heavier passenger vehicles more than lighter ones, Wyoming households would be hit pretty hard.

For example, at a tax rate of one cent per mile, if you drive 15,000 miles per year you would pay $150 in an annual tax. At five cents that tax would rise to $750, and at ten cents it would be $1,500 per year.

Of course, nobody would be crazy enough to propose a tax like this in Wyoming. Right…?