![]() ![]() Last year, Colorado began adding a 27-cent tax to home deliveries from Amazon and other online retailers to help fund transportation projects. Many states have implemented stopgap measures, such as imposing additional taxes or registration fees on electric vehicles and, more recently, adding per-kilowatt-hour taxes to electricity accessed at public charging stations. Without action, the gap could reach $67 billion by 2050 due to fuel efficiency alone, Boston-based CDM Smith estimates. So far, only three states - Oregon, Utah and Virginia - are generating revenue from road usage charges, despite the looming threat of an ever-widening gap between states’ gas tax proceeds and their transportation budgets. The federal government is about to pilot its own such program, funded by $125 million from the infrastructure measure President Joe Biden signed in November 2021. states face as they experiment with road usage charging programs aimed at one day replacing motor fuel taxes, whose purchasing power is less each year, in part due to inflation, fuel efficiency and the rise of electric cars. “It’s probably a good thing, but on top of everybody else’s stress today, it’s just one more thing,” she said of Oregon's first-in-the-nation initiative, which is run by the state transportation department where her son serves as a survey analyst.īurroughs’ reluctance exemplifies the myriad hurdles U.S. She figures it's far less hassle to just pay at the pump, as Americans have done for more than a century. Margaret Burroughs, 85, said she has no intention of inserting a tracking device on her Nissan Murano to record the miles she drives to get groceries or attend needlepoint meetings. At some point, the executive branch should be required to receive permission from the legislative branch to continue making far-reaching policies under an emergency order.COLUMBUS, Ohio – Evan Burroughs has spent eight years touting the virtues of an Oregon pilot program charging motorists by the distance their vehicle travels rather than the gas it guzzles, yet his own mother still hasn't bought in. The Governor should not fear being required to make the case to lawmakers why a particular emergency restriction is appropriate to continue, and the legislature should not hide from its constitutional responsibility to debate and adopt policy. Whether or not you agree or disagree with every decision the Governor made during Washington’s “temporary,” 975 days-long state of emergency, the fact remains these decisions with vast impact on individuals and businesses were made without public input or legislative debate. It is the legislature, not the governor, that is charged with making law, and the governor who is charged with implementing the laws passed by the legislature. ![]() Lawmakers may end up passing the very policies the governor would prefer to see implemented, but they do it after deliberation as representatives of the people and do it in a democratic public process. When situations last for extended periods, longer-term policies need to be implemented and the legislature needs to debate risks, benefits and trade-offs of various approaches. They are HB 1535 (Increasing legislative involvement in gubernatorial proclamations relating to a state of emergency) and SB 5063 (Establishing balanced legislative oversight of gubernatorial powers during a declared emergency). Two bills were introduced this year to reform the state’s emergency powers. Instead, these important reform efforts received strike four (no changes in 2020, 2021, 2022, or 2023), clearly communicating that the current majority legislative leadership is comfortable with the executive branch having a blank check to make policy when an emergency is declared. There was hope that with the Governor’s nearly 1,000-day governance by emergency orders finally expired, the legislature this year would give a fresh look at the statutory imbalance concerning checks and balances present in our emergency powers statute. Unfortunately, efforts to reform the state’s emergency powers died yet again this year without even the courtesy of public hearings. That said, when a bill doesn’t even receive a public hearing, it’s safe to call it double-dead. It’s true that no bill is really dead until the legislature adjourns. 31, nearly three years after the Democratic governor first issued the order. ![]() 8, 2022, that the state of emergency sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic will end Oct. Jay Inslee announces at a news conference in Olympia, Wash., Thursday, Sept. ![]()
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