Posted on 02/15/2005 6:58:53 AM PST by Ellesu
Corvallis, Oregon-- College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas bill once topped his car payment.
"I was paying about $500 a month," says Just.
So Just bought a fuel efficient hybrid and said goodbye to his gas-guzzling BMW.
And what kind of mileage does he get?
"The EPA estimate is 60 in the city, 51 on the highway," says Just.
And that saves him almost $300 a month in gas. It's great for Just but bad for the roads he's driving on, because he also pays a lot less in gasoline taxes which fund highway projects and road repairs. As more and more hybrids hit the road, cash-strapped states are warning of rough roads ahead.
Officials in car-clogged California are so worried they may be considering a replacement for the gas tax altogether, replacing it with something called "tax by the mile."
Seeing tax dollars dwindling, neighboring Oregon has already started road testing the idea.
"Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and it's as simple as that," says engineer David Kim.
Kim and his team at Oregon State University equipped a test car with a global positioning device to keep track of its mileage. Eventually, every car would need one.
"So, if you drive 10 miles you will pay a certain fee which will be, let's say, one tenth of what someone pays if they drive 100 miles," says Kim.
The new tax would be charged each time you fill up. A computer inside the gas pump would communicate with your car's odometer to calculate how much you owe.
The system could also track how often you drive during rush hour and charge higher fees to discourage peak use. That's an idea that could break the bottleneck on California's freeways.
"We're getting a lot of interest from other states," says Jim Whitty of the Oregon Department of Transportation. "They're watching what we're doing.
"Transportation officials across the country are concerned about what's going to happen with the gas tax revenues."
Privacy advocates say it's more like big brother riding on your bumper, not to mention a disincentive to buy fuel-efficient cars.
"It's not fair for people like me who have to commute, and we don't have any choice but take the freeways," says Just. "We shouldn't have to be taxed."
But tax-by-mile advocates say it may be the only way to ensure that fuel efficiency doesn't prevent smooth sailing down the road.
Words fail me.
Actually, this is a lot of crap. The number of hybrids on the road is far exceeded by the number of SUVs and other "gas-guzzlers" that are supposed to be so bad for us. If revenue were really such a problem, these states would outlaw hybrids and subsidize SUVs.
Revolution pending.
Time for the tea chest to get chucked into the sea again it seems.
Why don't they tax the kids for the number of cycles on the swing or seesaw at the school playground.
I think they should just get it over with and charge tax on the taxes, the "tax tax".
So we were taxed in order to build the roads, now we're to be taxed for the privilege of using them?
What if I own a 200 acre plot of land and spend most of my time driving around on that? Will I still be taxed based on what my odometer says under this plan?
Here we go again, from the great LIBERAL state of Oregon. This moronic idea has come up before -- just another hair-brained idea from the liberal left TO TAX THE PEOPLE once again. As if the liberals of Oregon have not already dessimated the economy of their state (been that way for a long time) they are CONSTANTLY trying to take more tax money from their public. What fools. They have one of the weakest state economies in the country...and the foolish voters KEEP VOTING THE LIBERALS BACK INTO OFFICE!!!!
Talk about state-level suicide!
He's absolutely right. The other states are trying to figure out how to deal with the influx of new residents once Oregon's population declines by about 98% once this measure is implemented.
If a politician tries this, ..... well, let's just say it would be very unwise for them.
Right. Let's penalize those who live in the boonies and 'burbs who have to commute several hundred miles a week just to go to work or school.
Errrr.... surtaxes are exactly that.
This is a very bad movie called "When Gubbermint Control Freaks Run Wild"
Here we go! They're gonna set up 666corp. to build the GPS units, and no one will be able to drive without one.
What's to keep me from wrapping the GPS receiver in my car with brass foil? This would make a Faraday Cage blocking out the GPS signals from the satellites. When it comes time to pay my tax at the end of the year... guess what... I've driven the car 0 miles.
Given the sheer idiocy of this tax plan, my guess would be "yes". Whoever is collecting the taxes doesn't give a rip if your driving around on your 2000 acre spread or across town.
I think BSF hit it right on the nose. remember a while back that one online writer argued that the LibDems needed to come up with a "city-oriented" plan that emphasized the greatness of big liberal cities like Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Portland, NYC, etc.? Well, what better way to do it than force drivers who commute from the suburbs/rural areas to move closer or into the cities to save money? That's exactly what this is...a scheme to force as many people as possible back into the big city hellholes.
The GAS TAX is the perfect form of taxation for funding roadways.
- Costs very little to collect.
- Is impossible to evade.
- Is safe. (Compare that to numerous deaths at toll plazas)
- Is non time consuming. (Backups at toll plazas anyone?)
- Has side effect of promoting fuel efficiency. (tolls don't do this)
If I were king of the world, I'd bulldoze every single tollbooth, and set the gas tax rate at a level that would fund adequate highway expansion.
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