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112 Kirk Davenport, Systems Analyst/Tax Specialist for Fuels Taxes Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles (March 18, 2009) Bonnie Rutledge, Commissioner Glen Button, Director of Enforcement and Safety Linda Schnieder, Director of Operations Donna Earl, Chief of Fuel Taxes Vermont Department of Transportation (March 17, 2009) Thomas Daniel, Director of Finance and Administration Costa Pappis, Planning Coordinator Mel Adams, Director of Planning B.2. Interview Questions for States The following pages present, in sequence, the background material and questions presented in advance to interview participants.
113 NCHRP 20-24 (69) Implementable Strategies for Shifting to Direct Usage-Based Charges for Transportation Funding Questions for State DOTs, DMVs/MVAs, and other state agencies Thank you for your potential interest in being interviewed for this project. This Transportation Research Board (TRB) project is looking at possible implementation strategies for vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fees and what could be accomplished over the next five years if this fee collection concept were to be implemented. With your assistance, we would like to better understand your stateâs current fee collection systems and your vehicle registration systems to consider what challenges and/or obstacles might arise with a VMT fee. We assume that some of the questions below will be more appropriate for a DOT than a DMV, and vice versa. We have provided all the questions in a single document so that you will understand the full range of the topics that will be considered, and so that you would also be able to pass questions along to the appropriate state agency. Please see the last page of this document for more information on VMT fees and background of this project.
114 Interview Questions Current Systems â Passenger Vehicles What types of passenger vehicle registration fees do you (or other entities) collect? Straight registration fees, personal property tax (ad valorum tax-based on the value of the vehicle), clean air/emissions fees, other? How often are fees collected? What agency(ies) is/are responsible for collecting vehicle registration fees for passenger vehicles? Is your agency the sole agency or entity responsible for collecting vehicle registration fees for passenger vehicles? If not, what other entities are responsible? Do you use private entities (such as AAA)? Do car dealers collect fees? Do counties have a registration/fee collection role? What percentage of fees do you collect versus other entities? What transactional systems are in place to collect, track, and transmit fees? How well do they operate? Are they easily changed? Is it difficult or costly to change them? Why? What collection channels do you use? Mail, counter, phone, internet? Have you determined the cost of collecting vehicle registration fees? What is the cost of vehicle fee collection? Is this considered high, low, or acceptable? Is lowering this cost a high priority? Do you assess the cost of fee collection on a per-vehicle or other basis? How do you make that determination? Are there any specific enforcement issues with regard to vehicle registration fees, such as in-state evasion, out-of-state registration, running on temporary tags indefinitely, not formally registering, or other? If in your state the counties collect registration fees, do you know their average cost for vehicle fee collection? Do they keep a percentage of the fee collected? If so, what percentage? Do you have a different registration fee (sales tax or property tax) for alternative fuel vehicles? Can you distinguish different vehicle types in your registration system (e.g., SUV, hybrid, passenger vehicle, alternative fuel)? What agency(ies) is/are responsible for collecting and receiving fuel taxes for passenger vehicles? What systems are in place to collect, track, and transmit fuel taxes? How well do they operate? Does your state incur any additional costs associated with enforcement or fraud? Please describe briefly your vehicle inspection process with regards to the following: Frequency of inspections; centralized, decentralized, or a combination/hybrid; who conducts the inspections; does it cover the whole state or only certain counties?
115 Do you collect odometer readings as part of an inspection process? Are those readings transmitted from service stations or inspection stations to the DMV? Are they connected to the vehicle record, i.e. put into the system at each inspection? Do you share them with third parties (for example, Carfax or insurance companies)? Do you collect odometer readings for any other transactions? Are they made part of the vehicle record? Please provide some background on your license plate production process. Does your state issue one plate or two plates? Are they produced by the prison, other state entity, or third party producer? Is there a required replacement cycle? If so, what is the replacement cycle? Have there been any changes to the replacement cycle? Is it legislated/mandated in law? What is the estimated cost to complete a plate replacement program for your state? Are any planned? Could a device, such an RFID, be embedded in the license plate as it is currently produced? Would this type of action require legislation? What would the issues be? Current Systems â Trucks Which agency(ies) is/are responsible for collecting registration fees for trucks under the IRP? Which agency(ies) is/are responsible for collecting fuel taxes for trucks under the IFTA? What systems are in place to collect, track, and transmit these fees (IRP/IFTA)? How well do they operate? What are the issues and benefits of these systems? What changes have been put in place to improve collection and transmission? What is your overall assessment of the IRP and IFTA systems, including the IRP Clearinghouse? Have your audits found many problems? What kinds of problems? Is registration evasion an issue? Is reporting less mileage than traveled an issue? Are there any specific enforcement issues with regard to IRP and IFTA? If so, how are they addressed? What is the cost of IRP and IFTA collection? Is this considered high, low, or acceptable? Is lowering this cost a high priority? Do you assess the cost of IRP and IFTA collection on a per- vehicle or other basis? How do you make that determination? Which agency is responsible for confirming payment of the Heavy Vehicle Use Tax? What is the process for payment confirmation? Are there any specific enforcement issues with regard to HVUT? Potential Systems for VMT Fees Would there be interest in your state in moving towards a system of VMT fees, either to supplement or replace the gas tax? If not, why not? If yes: describe the anticipated benefits associated with your stateâs planned system of VMT fees. Comment on the applicability of such
116 potential benefits as increased equity, consumer savings, affordability, economic efficiency, reduced vehicle travel, safety, impact on other modes of travel (e.g., public transit) and potential emissions reductions. If there were to be a VMT tax in your state, what role would you envision for the DOT, DMV, and/or other state agencies? Do you see a role for any other entities outside of state government (e.g., county clerks, insurance industry, consumer groups, public safety organizations)? If so, what would their role be? What state-level barriers exist with regards to implementing a VMT fee? These might include legislative issues, political opposition, problems arising at state borders or with other jurisdictions, other institutional barriers, technological issues, and privacy concerns. Are your current systems capable of implementing a VMT fee using odometer readings (which might be supplied by customers or inspection stations or through the registration process)? Currently your state collects the federal fuel tax for the federal government. Would there be any issues with your state collecting a federally imposed VMT tax at the time of vehicle registration or by using odometer readings? What are your thoughts on viable technologies or other operational systems to implement a VMT fee? Describe these technologies and systems relative to equipment costs, operating costs, user convenience, effectiveness in meeting VMT goals. If your state is exploring VMT fees already, describe some best practices your state has developed or considered in evaluating implementation of a system of VMT fees. Are the IFTA and IRP models potential models to consider for implementing VMT fees? Why or why not?
117 Background: VMT Fees The RAND Corporation is leading a project (NCHRP 20-24, Task 69) to identify and evaluate options for a near-term (5 years) transition to vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) fees. Such fees would shift the main burden of taxes to pay for roads and other transportation from a per-gallon fuel tax to a per-mile fee for every mile driver by a motorist. VMT fees have been piloted in several states but not implemented on a permanent basis. VMT fees could be calculated and collected in a variety of ways: via odometer readings, transponders, GPS systems, radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, and several other technologies. Depending on the technological flexibility of the system, it might be possible to assess fees that vary with vehicle type (for example, a low-emissions vehicle could pay a lower per-mile rate than a high-emissions one), with time of day or real-time congestion level (so as to manage congestion by charging more to drive during peak hours), or other factors. VMT fees would overcome some of the revenue challenges faced by fuel taxes while simultaneously providing a means for addressing several other important policy goals. Most existing proposals suggest phasing in a VMT-fee system gradually, over a period of perhaps 15- 20 years, as consumers purchase new vehicles equipped with more advanced technology such as on-board computers equipped with GPS receivers. Yet the challenges motivating a switch to VMT fees are urgent, and there is keen interest in determining whether it might be possible to develop a simpler system for VMT fees that could be implemented much more rapidly. The goals of this project are to identify, evaluate, and recommend mechanisms for near-term implementation of VMT fees, considering a broad range of technical, political, administrative, and legal factors, and to outline the steps needed to put such a system in place by 2015. The project will also consider how a simple system for VMT fees might transition to a more technically sophisticated system over the longer term. We will be assessing a number of technologies and payment systems against criteria such as revenue generation, administrative costs, privacy and other public concerns, and policy flexibility. Your responses to the questions on the previous pages will help us assess issues with regard to existing state systems and identify potential problems or opportunities. See the projectâs Web page for more information: http://www.trb.org/TRBNet/ProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=2626.
