On Tuesday the Massachusetts Legislature will consider a bill intended explore alternative alternatives to taxing gasoline in order to help produce revenue for the Commonwealth.  The measure put forth to the Joint Committee on Transportation by state Representative Carl Sciortino, Jr. (D-Medford) and fellow Rep Tricia Farley-Bouvier (D-Pittsfield) acknowledges the declining effectiveness of the current motor vehicle fuel tax due to the rise of more fuel-efficient vehicle models as well as more energy-efficient fuel sources.

According to the legislation, Massachusetts’ tendency to expedite progressive innovations across a spectrum of disciplines and industries has  rendered it  “uniquely positioned to become a leader in the advancement of the technology and methods needed to develop and implement alternative ways to raise transportation revenue.”

And as lawmakers continue to push for the specific part of the transportation finance bill that ties the taxation rate on gasoline to the rate of inflation to be placed on the ballot in hopes of turning public sentiment against it and subsequently expunging it, this talent fostered in the Greater Boston Area’s higher-educational institutions may come in handy.

Should the measure pass, it calls for an investigation into more profitable taxation methods in the form of a pilot program that measures the amount of miles one drives within the state. 1,000 volunteers would be needed that accurately represent the population of drivers, truckers, passengers, and commercial vehicles who then allow the state to install and measure on-board vehicle-mileage-counting equipment to discover if it’s feasible to tax Bay Staters based on miles traveled in lieu of the traditional gasoline.

In order to make sure data isn’t skewed or manipulated, it further calls for measurements to be conducted by various technologies and methods to ensure the volunteers’ privacy, the integrity of the collected information, and vary the the different ways in which the state would or may tax.

But before the state would consider a different taxation method, the resolution’s data reports would first compile statistics for a two-year period to be examined and interpreted “with the clerks of the senate and house of representatives, and to the joint committee on transportation.”