Posted on 05/02/2007 5:41:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
An article in the Wall Street Journal last week points out what happens when public officials depend upon the continued bad behavior of Americans to fund their projects.
Under the headline: "Fuel-Efficient Cars Dent States' Road Budgets," reporter Robert Guy Matthews writes that drivers, answering the call to conserve energy, are driving cars which use less gas. Less gas used means less gas purchased. Less gas purchased means fewer tax dollars collected. Way fewer. According to Matthews: The Federal Highway Administration estimates that by 2009 the tax receipts that make up most of the federal highway trust fund will be $21 billion shy of what's needed just to maintain existing roads, much less build new roads or add capacity.
Trying to compensate for highway-budget shortfalls, a handful of states are exploring other, potentially more lucrative ways to raise highway money.
Other ways to raise highway money? That sounds modestly ominous.
Oregon, for instance, is looking at a system which combines a GPS receiver, an odometer, and a recording device. Object? To charge drivers a set price (maybe 1.2 cents) for each mile driven.
No benefits, apparently, for driving one of those hideous Prius hybrids - which alone makes me sort of in favor of this.
Vehicles in the Oregon test have the 24-cent-a-gallon state tax automatically deducted from their pump price and the 1.2 cents per mile fee since their last fill-up added.
If the average fuel-efficiency of passenger cars (according to the US Department of Transportation) in that year was 22.4 MPG then the average driver in Oregon bought 536 gallons of gas. Paying the 24 cents per gallon tax, that would have netted the state government $128.64 per vehicle.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Oregon Ping
If they would repeal the state tax on gas and institute this per mile tax I would gladly welcome it just as soon as I could buy my Hummer.
I think a possible problem is that drivers could end up eventually paying both the mileage tax as well as the per gallon gas tax. Governments may see a new tax as a way to raise more revenue, not simply shift to the mileage tax in place of a gas tax.
Yeah this whole "Freedom" thing is over rated. I see no reason the Government elites shouldn't run our lives. After all they're just smarter!
Oh no, this will be an ADDITIONAL TAX, don’t ya know?!! We never repeal a tax if we can help it! —your friendly local tax collectors
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
“Vehicles in the Oregon test have the 24-cent-a-gallon state tax automatically deducted from their pump price and the 1.2 cents per mile fee since their last fill-up added.”
Ya think?
Latest idea by a Seattle city council member is to charge people to drive their cars into the city.
Latest idea by a Seattle city council member is to charge people to drive their cars into the city.”
If I were a business owner in Seattle, I would move my business OUT of the city to a smaller town, where I would be appreciated.
Then my employees would not have to drive “INTO” the city.
There is hardly a business left in this country that cannot be moved. Steel mills are already gone.
People in Oregon need to be real careful with this one. A case in point when I lived there.......The state legislature wanted to bring in a sales tax. Oregonians said fine.....but a fixed tax and lower the property tax, which is some of the highest in the nation. The Oregon Legislature said no way. No sales tax.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
A very good reason to N-E-V-E-R go there even to visit!
“When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that an old source is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer where they had only one before.” —H. L. Mencken
Why doesn’t the Govt. put a little camera in the car so that they can detect other antisocial behavior?
Smoke a cigarette, 25 cent tax. Eat a big mac going down the road? 75 cent fat tax, $75 fine for unsafe driving?
Where will it end?
If you raise the tax to infinity, you will get an infinite amount of money for the road fund.
How about going on vacation, say to another state. Pay their tax and pay for tax miles.
How about having a loved one living in Canada? You pay even when a person does their best by owning a car that gets 50 miles to the gallon.
One positive thing I see is Oregon has a law which requires new tax to be voted on. (hopefully this tax would apply) I hope the Oregonians are smart enough to see the trap this new tax will be.
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