Would you support a driveway tax?

News from the Kansas City Star reports that the City Council of Mission, Kansas, has approved a driveway tax.

A driveway tax is simply a fee that charges you based on how much traffic your property produces. Currently in Mission, Kansas, sales and property taxes raise revenue to finance roads. Alas, such revenue has not been sufficient enough to maintain the roads. With the tax, households and businesses are going to share a larger financial burden - the fee is expected to raise $1.2 million a year to help finance $38 million in road improvements during the next 10 years.

"The City Council on Wednesday night approved a new fee charging every homeowner $72 a year and small businesses $3,558 a year beginning in December".

Engineers have calculated that a single-family home generates about 9 1/2 vehicle trips a day. Target Store (virtually ubiquitous across America) generates about 8,500 trips a day. McDonald’s is predicted to produce 2,700 trips.

A driveway tax is not common in the U.S. In fact, the only state that has been progressive with such a tax is Oregon. 18 cities in Oregon have adopted it. This comes at no surprise considering Oregon is more green and progressive in its thinking.

As you could imagine, the newly passed tax has witnessed negative reactions from the business community. Unsurprisingly, they are concerned that in a time when the economy is recovering, the tax would simply hurt small businesses.

Like London's Congestion Charge Zone, these sort of eco-taxes are always jurisdiction dependent; what works in one city might not work in another. A driveway tax may be appropriate for Mission considering that roads there are deteriorating and someone has to pay for them. I agree with Felix Salmon's assessment of this, it is similar to my argument of the BC carbon tax being too low. In short, if a driveway tax is introduced in your city, it should be set at a rate that can actually change behaviour. The formulas predict that the tax will cost 2 cents per trip; that is way too low to bring about any meaningful reduction in driving.

The driveway tax for homeowners in Mission will be $72. This is irrespective of how many trips you do in a day. Thus it is a uniform rate which is problematic because it discriminates against those who drive less, those who bike, take public transit or walk to their final destination. It is understood that the city needs revenue to ameliorate their streets, but those who drive more (produce more traffic from their property) should pay more. It is unfair to discriminate against those who take greener methods of transport.

Those who do take greener methods should be guaranteed some sort of incentive to encourage the continuation of sustainable transport and change behaviour of current motorists. This way, revenue is still being collected while simultaneously changing behaviour and getting people to think about the environment.

Key message: The next decade will see even more green taxes. It's 2010, times are changing and we are going to have to adapt. Creating a win-win for the environment and the economy will require full participation of citizens; this can eventually lead to sustainable urban solutions.