Existing Federal Truck-related Taxes: These mechanisms are levied without direct correlation to cargo carried and serve as a source of general funding for highway and (in the case of diesel taxes) transit. Combined, these sources generated $14.4 billion in revenues in 2007 and 2008 based on the following rates:
• Diesel Taxes: 24.4¢ per gallon, with receipts from 2.86¢ going to transit and from 0.1¢ going to the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund
• Heavy Truck and Trailer Sales Tax: 12 percent of the retail sales price for tractors and trucks over 33,000 pounds gross vehicle weight (GVW) and trailers over 26,000 pounds GVW
• Truck Tire Tax: 9.45¢ per each 10 pounds over 3,500 pounds in maximum tire load rating
• Heavy Vehicle Use Tax (HVUT): annual tax on trucks 55,000 pounds and over GVW, $100 plus $22 for each 1,000 pounds (or fraction thereof) in excess of 55,000 pounds (maximum tax of $550)
Diesel taxes and (less consistently) other truck-related charges also are used at the state level to raise revenues for surface transportation investment. In 2006, for instance, the trucking industry paid $19.6 billion in state highway user taxes, accounting for 27.8 percent of total highway user-based taxes collected.9
Customs Duties and Fees: The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol imposes custom fees at varying rates on a range of imported goods passing through U.S. international gateways. All revenues from custom fees currently go to the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury. These fees began as a processing and/or inspection fee for air and sea passengers, commercial trucks, rail cars, private vessels, and durable mail packages and for customs broker permits.10 A portion of the revenues from existing customs duties potentially could be dedicated to transportation infrastructure tied to the movement of those goods-effectively a transfer from the General Fund. Alternatively, and assumed for this purpose, a transportation use surcharge could be added to the existing custom duty and fee schedule and dedicated to freight transportation infrastructure. Freight Waybill Tax: A freight waybill tax would serve as a sales tax on the shipping costs for freight. Such a tax could be modeled on the aviation system tax, in which passenger and freight users who rely on the same infrastructure and carriers all contribute to fund the system. The air-freight waybill tax currently provides 5 percent of contributions to the federal Airport and Airway Trust Fund.11 | Any single approach to deriving revenues from freight-related users of the transportation network may miss some users entirely or disproportionately burden one type of carriage or shipper over another. |
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Weight-Distance Tax: Weight-distance taxes are fees imposed on the miles traveled by specific vehicle classes, commonly referred to as vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fees, which take into account the weight and load of a vehicle and essentially impose a premium on heavier vehicles to recover the added wear and tear they cause to the system.12 Also referred to as a "ton-mile tax" in some cases, this tax can be based on a combination of the actual weight being carried for each trip and the number of miles traveled, on the weight of the truck and the number of axles, or on the average vehicle weight plus load weights. Oregon has been charging heavy trucks a weight-mile tax since 1947 and currently does so in lieu of fuel taxes for this vehicle class.13 Kentucky, New Mexico, and New York also use variations of the weight-mile tax in combination with fuel tax for their highway use taxation. A tonnage tax would be charged on the gross weight of the vehicle and would be charged either per trip or on an annual basis. The disconnect from miles operated makes this fee structure similar to the HVUT, serving as a penalty for the added stress put on the highway by the very heavy vehicles but not reflecting how much the vehicle is used. Charging on a per trip basis addresses use but makes charging and collecting difficult.
Container Tax: A per container fee could be collected at port gates or via a toll collection system in the immediate vicinity of a port and dedicated to an intermodal investment fund. The Port of Long Beach currently charges container fees to fund the Alameda Corridor project.
Harbor Maintenance Tax: The harbor maintenance tax is an existing revenue mechanism, similar to customs duties and fees, that supports the federal Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund through an ad valorem tax on the value of passenger tickets and declared commercial cargo loaded onto or unloaded from vessels using federally maintained harbors.14 The current tax is largely used to pay for harbor dredging and thus primarily (and appropriately) benefits deep- draft ocean-going vessels carrying cargo on trans-oceanic routes. The Harbor Maintenance Tax could be increased and dedicated to an intermodal investment fund (or existing revenues from the tax could be redirected to such a fund).