Posted on 10/05/2010 11:01:36 AM PDT by Willie Green
A tax on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) was shot down last year by President Obama. But a new study by respected transportation experts and a successful pilot program in Oregon should revive the idea.
As more Americans buy hybrid or electric cars, drivers in traditional gas-only vehicles are bound to start asking: Why should I still be paying more in fuel taxes? Dont we all use the highways?
Indeed, the gas tax is quickly becoming an unjust way to finance the costs of roads and bridges. All vehicles, whether they be a Hummer or a Prius, use the same infrastructure, which needs to be built and maintained regardless of a cars fuel type.
There is an alternative, one that is fair, already proven, and, based on a new study by some 80 experts, the best way to start financing surface transportation.
It is a pay-as-you-go fee system based simply on distance, or a tax on vehicle miles traveled (VMT). The idea is the centerpiece recommendation of the study, released Monday, called Well Within Reach: Americas New Transportation Agenda. The report is based on a recent three-day conference of experts at the University of Virginia.
Oregon already tested a VMT system in 2006-07, using 299 volunteer motorists. The pilot program equipped their vehicles with devices that allowed gas stations to track their mileage during each fill-up. More than 90 percent of the participants said they would agree to use it in lieu of the gas tax, and the states governor is now seeking $10 million to expand the program.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
lol no kidding!
Fossil fuel drivers will get the double ding.
If the GE commercials are accurate, then the plethora of electric chargers to satisfy the new cars will cause a significant drop in gas taxes.
They won’t do with less, hence gas and mileage taxes.
The Oregon test they discussed in the article was based on GPS and RFID which combines to acronym EVIL. The GPS tracks where and how far. The RFID reports to the pump and adds the tax.
lol.
I’ll second that.
Diverting Gas Tax Money to Sidewalks and Transit Hurts Highways
http://reason.org/blog/show/diverting-gas-tax-money-to-sid
Study says highway fix funds could come from fuel taxes if money not diverted
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2565875/posts
IMO, this post alone should get you banned as a fascist control freak.
If you weren't so pathetically comical you'd have been gone a long time ago.
This is not just about revenue. There are not enough hybrids to make a difference, and there are almost no electric cars at all.
No way I’m going to let them track my vehicle or mileage so that they can “tax it.”
While I do NOT support any new tax schemes at this time, I can point you to existing technologies that would eliminate your concerns. First, we have odometers. Tampering with them is already a felony. A state could easily assess a mileage-based levy at vehicle registration.
If it's based on fuel efficiency (or has that component), manufacturers already have the ability to install that feature on vehicles (mine has it). Again, when the registration is renewed, the computer would provide the average efficiency over the prior year.
I suppose the trickiest aspect is whether you tax specific miles and not others (are federal highways the only mileage taxed)? Then it becomes an EZ Pass type "solution", merely requiring billions of dollars to install readers at every on and off ramp in America.
The way corrupt municipalities and state governments are going, expect all new road construction to eventually be “pay-go” toll roads with EZ tags. Also expect to see more exisiting highways unconstitutionally converted to toll roads and those toll roads sold to foreign investors for quick cash to balance budgets.
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Precisely what I was getting at.
The gas tax does the job by taxing people driving heavy, road-beating gas guzzlers more and lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles less.
This proposal is all about surveillance, not about fairness.
Locally were taking 4 lane streets (2 lanes both ways) and making them into 2 lane streets with a turn lane and 2 bicycle lanes. Basically we’re giving bikes an equal share when they pay zero tax.
A local reporter did an informal traffic count on one of these streets and counted some 38,000 cars over 48 hours, and 30 bikes in the same time frame.
On to the point of paying by the mile - that is idiocy. Generally small light vehicles that do less damge to the road, get better gas mileage. Generally, large heavy vehicles that do more damage to the road, get worse gas mileage. The great thing about taxing fuel is that nobody can avoid the fee and people who drive small, light, fuel sipping cars pay way less than people who drive large, heavy gas hogs. This is fair because the small light cars do less damage to the road than the big heavy cars. If you pay by the mile, then the guy in the 8000 lb rig will pay the same fee as the guy in the 2000 lb micro-car, even though his rig is doing 4 times the damge.
Now your trivia of the day: One fully loaded semi-truck and trailer does the same damage to the road as 1,000 average passenger cars. Think about that one. Just imaging if semi's paid by the mile at the same rate as the Miata owner.
That’s the idea. Ray TheHood wants us all out of our cars.
A few issues I see.
1. Long haul trucking...truckers will pass the cost of the tax to clients...expect prices of everything to go up.
2. Older folks...who only drive on residential streets, will be taxed to maintain highways that they never use.
3. People are sick and tired of being punished for doing what they have been asked to do. Use more fuel efficient cars, says the government. We comply and the government punishes us by concocting another tax.
It’s getting to the point where more and more people are going to just ignore the mandates of the government.
Gas tax are the main source of highway and road money, but bonds are another big source. Every election cycle we in California have bond issues to pay for road work, and most of them pass. Many of them are for quite a lot of money. People don’t even mind paying for this since they know they are getting a smooth safe road for their money. It is when the money is hijacked or goes to transit they did not approve, or gets eaten away in useless environmental studies, or is spent inefficiently - that is when people get furious.
People don’t mind spending gas tax money & bond money for roads if they know their money is not being squandered and wasted or on a bridge to nowhere.
Agree totally. No government will be recording my mileage any more than they already do for yearly vehicle inspection. If I have to drive an uninspected vehicle with expired tags, so be it. I'll pay the fines if I get stopped and ticketed.
As you said ... it takes much more money than actually required. It costs a million dollars a mile because there is one guy working and seventeen guys standing around watching him. These Obamabucks projects (and those beautiful $10k signs) that I've seen in several states lately are about to give me an aneurysm.
Get your monies worth out of the construction company and you can get better roads and actually lower taxes.
The problem is that this wouldn’t be as a replacement for gas tax - it will end up being in ADDITION to the gas tax.
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