Obama administration nixes miles traveled tax proposal

Yesterday’s release of Paying Our Way: A New Framework for Transportation Finance by the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission suggested switching to a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax to raise capital for the U.S. infrastructure system. However, the odds of it being put in place anytime in the next few years seem unlikely, after the Obama administration denied any interest in switching to a VMT system.

"It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told a group of reporters after the commission’s findings were revealed.

However, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood appeared more receptive to the possibility. "We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled," LaHood said in an interview with the Associated Press.