Just as many Mainers wouldn’t choose to drive a vehicle built in the 1920s, they shouldn’t have their cars and trucks taxed by a policy created during the giddy days before the Great Depression, either.

Maine’s vehicle excise tax, however, is just that. In 1925, the Maine Legislature decided the fairest method of taxing these newfangled modern conveniences – the automobile – was the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, or MSRP. For the fledgling auto industry, it was likely fairest as well.

Since the Roaring Twenties, though, the manufacture and sale of automobiles has exploded into a global industry in which American might has faded against Pacific competitors, highlighted this year by Toyota’s inevitable surpassing of General Motors as the world’s leading automaker.

Yet Maine continues to tax vehicles based on outdated standards. Today, in Room 127 of the State House, the Legislature’s Taxation Committee is holding public hearings on three bills – LD 79, LD 459 and LD 558 – that would finally revise Maine’s antiquated system of taxing automobiles.

The bills attack excise tax on three fronts: LD 79 would suspend the tax on new vehicle purchases for one year; LD 459 would knock $3,000 off the manufacturer’s price; and LD 558 drops the highest excise tax rate – 24 mills – to 18 mills, which is considered the national average.

All hope for the same result: preventing the predictable taxpayer heart attacks at municipal offices from being presented with an excise tax bill. None have solid solutions for replacing revenue lost from the legislation, leading observers to believe other taxes will simply rise to cover the gap.

Fifteen other states have some similar tax, with a variety of foundations. Some states use vehicle weight to calculate the tax, others the vehicle’s sale price. Some use flat tax rates. Few, if any, depend on MSRP and a declining scale of mill rates as their basis.

Maine uses both. Its vehicle excise tax is consistently highest in the nation. This is probably not coincidence.

Removing sticker shock from Maine’s vehicle excise taxes takes more than the quick-fix solutions presented by LD 179, LD 459 and LD 558. The tax needs to have its foundation – MSRP – removed, and its tiered system of six mill rates renovated.

Only by basing excise tax on realistic figures, such as values that account for vehicle depreciation, or the automobile’s initial sale price, will taxpayers come to accept the excise tax as a necessary levy, and not an untimely penalty based on an artificial number.

Because vehicles, as they get older, aren’t worth as much as when they left the factory.

The same is true for tax policy.