Posted on 02/20/2009 4:11:38 AM PST by Man50D
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn -- an idea that has angered drivers in some states where it has been proposed.
Gasoline taxes that for nearly half a century have paid for the federal share of highway and bridge construction can no longer be counted on to raise enough money to keep the nation's transportation system moving, LaHood said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled," the former Illinois Republican lawmaker said.
Most transportation experts see a vehicle miles traveled tax as a long-term solution, but Congress is being urged to move in that direction now by funding pilot projects.
The idea also is gaining ground in several states. Governors in Idaho and Rhode Island are talking about such programs, and a North Carolina panel suggested in December the state start charging motorists a quarter-cent for every mile as a substitute for the gas tax.
A tentative plan in Massachusetts to use GPS chips in vehicles to charge motorists by the mile has drawn complaints from drivers who say it's an Orwellian intrusion by government into the lives of citizens. Other motorists say it eliminates an incentive to drive more fuel-efficient cars since gas guzzlers will be taxed at the same rate as fuel sippers.
Besides a VMT tax, more tolls for highways and bridges and more government partnerships with business to finance transportation projects are other funding options, LaHood, one of two Republicans in President Barack Obama's Cabinet, said in the interview Thursday.
"What I see this administration doing is this -- thinking outside the box on how we fund our infrastructure in America," he said.
LaHood said he firmly opposes raising the federal gasoline tax in the current recession.
The program that funds the federal share of highway projects is part of a surface transportation law that expires Sept. 30. Last fall, Congress made an emergency infusion of $8 billion to make up for a shortfall between gas tax revenues and the amount of money promised to states for their projects. The gap between money raised by the gas tax and the cost of maintaining the nation's highway system and expanding it to accommodate population growth is forecast to continue to widen.
Among the reasons for the gap is a switch to more fuel-efficient cars and a decrease in driving that many transportation experts believe is related to the economic downturn. Electric cars and alternative-fuel vehicles that don't use gasoline are expected to start penetrating the market in greater numbers.
"One of the things I think everyone agrees with around reauthorization of the highway bill is that the highway trust fund is an antiquated system for funding our highways," LaHood said. "It did work to build the interstate system and it was very effective, there's no question about that. But the big question now is, We're into the 21st century and how are we going to take care of our infrastructure needs ... with a highway trust fund that had to be plused up by $8 billion by Congress last year?"
A blue-ribbon national transportation commission is expected to release a report next week recommending a VMT.
The system would require all cars and trucks be equipped with global satellite positioning technology, a transponder, a clock and other equipment to record how many miles a vehicle was driven, whether it was driven on highways or secondary roads, and even whether it was driven during peak traffic periods or off-peak hours.
The device would tally how much tax motorists owed depending upon their road use. Motorists would pay the amount owed when it was downloaded, probably at gas stations at first, but an alternative eventually would be needed.
Rob Atkinson, president of the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, the agency that is developing future transportation funding options, said moving to a national VMT would take about a decade.
Privacy concerns are based more on perception than any actual risk, Atkinson said. The satellite information would be beamed one way to the car and driving information would be contained within the device on the car, with the amount of the tax due the only information that's downloaded, he said.
The devices also could be programmed to charge higher rates to vehicles that are heavier, like trucks that put more stress on roadways, Atkinson said.
The only way to accurately track this would be a chip in each person’s forehead - maybe in the shape of 666.
“to record how many miles a vehicle was driven, whether it was driven on highways or secondary roads, and even whether it was driven during peak traffic periods or off-peak hours.”
Of course, they will never think about sending tickets if that little ‘exceeding speed limit’ warning comes on ....
The mileage fee reminds me of our Governor ann richards, who “fee’d” every thing imaginable in Texas, but the ho didn't raise taxes..
Those aren’t GPS units and don’t have any onboard logic. They don’t broadcast, they’re just read by overhead sensors as you pass.
And they’re stupidly easy to shield so they can’t be read.
Yeah... about that...it’ll be about 30 seconds before this gets hacked.
And even if it doesn’t, vehicles can have power surges (not induced ones, either) that can fry electronics.
Only when they're tuned to the one "bad" station, Fox News.
As for power surges, I haven't seen ‘em, but I'm sure they'll incorporate that into the design and/or legislation.
“Hey, Mr. Compliance Officer, I’m not an electronics wizard! How would I know a sledgehammer would cause my GPS to malfunction?”
Not the first couple of go-rounds. Government design, remember? And I’ve had trouble enough with power spikes from a given enhanced/rebuilt alternator actually killing equipment on its own, sooo....
With the current toll-tags, a simple strip of window tint is enough to block the readers from being able to see it.
The gist of my point was that Obamalamadingdong didn't win in a landslide, although he's acting like he did.
Another thing that probably means nothing but most of the vehicles I see with “obama-Biden” ,”obama 08” ,”Change” are occupied by White people.
Yes, I've noticed the same thing, particularly when I was in Atlanta on Thursday. Lots of Lexus', BMW's and Mercedes down that way with Obamalamadingdong stickers on them. Probably white guilt at work. Hard to believe after witnessing the first month of the Obamalamadingdong administration that folks with a brain would still have those stickers on their cars.....then again, I occasionally still see Gore/Lieberman stickers and sKerry/Edwards stickers, too....
Yep. I would love to know how much ACORN and similar groups influenced the election.
I understand that he did not. Idid not vote for the marxist bastard and he will never be my president.
If I came off a bit harsh in my response to it was not my intention.
I got to stay off the obama threads because I despise the pos and despise the parasites that inflicted him on me more than I despise him.
I am going to get banned if I don’t.
Yeah, I know what you mean. My wife commented the other night when we were listening to the news that I'd call this guy what he is two years ago. I recognized his Marxist rhetoric the first time I heard him speak.
You know, another thing that concerns me is all the doom and gloom comments I keep seeing here. It seems that the majority of the folks who post here, while they might be riled up about Obamalamadingdong, they seem all to willing to just roll over and take whatever comes their way. Michelle Malkin has it right. We need to get out and get in this guy's face and make our feelings known. I know it's made me more politically active than at anytime in my life. I've called my congresscritters more in the past month than I have in probably the past five years. I wish more folks would do less complaining and more protesting and teaching and enlightening to those who don't pay as close attention to daily issues as the typical Freeper. If we don't do this in large numbers we may not be able to reverse what is going on now. That is scary....
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