Posted on 03/25/2011 6:51:56 PM PDT by IbJensen
The federal government is looking beyond fuel taxes for new sources of highway funding.
(CNSNews.com) - A new Congressional Budget Office study says taxing motorists based on the number of miles they drive would be a fair and "efficient" way to charge motorists for the real cost of using the nation's highways. "Vehicle-miles traveled" taxes (or VMT taxes) also would provide a strong incentive for people to drive less.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood floated the idea of a VMT tax one month after President Obama took office, but Obama’s spokesman immediately shot it down. "It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters in February 2009.
But that was then.
The CBO study, released this week, says the federal government pays in part for about 25 percent of the nation's highways, which carry about 85 percent of all road traffic. Right now, federal spending on those highways is funded mainly by taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, but those taxes do not raise enough money to support either the current federal spending on highways -- or the higher spending levels that some transportation planners advocate.
The CBO said most of the costs of using a highway, including pavement damage, congestion, accidents, and noise, are tied more closely to the number of miles traveled than to the amount of fuel consumed.
While raising fuel taxes would bring in more money, the CBO notes that a "fundamental" problem would remain: "By themselves, fuel taxes cannot provide a strong incentive for people to avoid overusing highways," the report said.
On the other hand, VMT taxes would have most motorists paying "substantially more than they do now -- perhaps several times more," the report said. "Such a system would maximize the efficiency of highway use by discouraging trips for which costs exceed benefits."
As for the costs of establishing and operating a nationwide VMT tax, CBO admitted that its estimates are "rough." Metering equipment would have to be installed in all cars and trucks, perhaps "under a mandate to vehicle manufacturers."
The report notes that under a VMT tax, different charges could be applied to achieve certain goals. If the goal is to "maximize the efficiency of highway use," drivers might be required to pay according to the type of vehicle they drive (heavy truck vs. passenger car), the time a vehicle uses the road (rush hour vs. off-peak hours), and where vehicles are traveling (city streets vs. less congested roads).
"The idea of imposing VMT taxes that vary by time and place has raised concerns about privacy because the process of assessing such taxes could give the government access to specific information about how individual vehicles are used," the report says.
CBO offers various suggestions to address those concerns, including restricting the amount of information about a vehicle's travel that is used in billing or restricting the kind of information that is conveyed to the government; making tracking devices appealing to the public by allowing them to be used for other services, such as real-time traffic reports or electronic payment for parking; and allowing users to opt out of paying per-mile charges and pay higher fuel taxes instead. "The optional fuel taxes would be set at rates high enough to appeal only to users with the greatest privacy concerns," the report said.
The CBO prepared the study at the request of the Senate Budget Committee.
The commie ‘RATS are still trying to come up with new ways to finance communism in this country. Socialism/Communism can be expensive. Especially if you’re planning on giving amnesty to 30 million new commie ‘RAT voters.
Great idea. Let’s also charge tax on bus and train tickets.
After all, they need to pay for the streets and rails they use too.
Since the buses are much heavier and their wear and tear on the streets much heavier than cars is, I say tax bus riders 50 times as much as the vehicle driver.
Works for me. When can we start?
I’m looking forward to seeing all my gas taxes be taken off the gallon of gas.
Can’t wait!
Sweet. I’d have to quit my job. With fuel costs and then a tax for driving, that would eat up the wages I get from the job that barely pays me.
I’d bet 40% of the idiots out there would go for something like this. Sickening.
You know, there are times when I think it might be best if all our citizens just moved to another nation.
Let the 20% of the populace that wants to see it go into the toilet remain and live in that toilet.
Between them and the illegals they should have an excellent time.
Don't hold your breath. This tax will no doubt be on top of taxes collected at the pump. Would you really expect anything less?
Sweet. I’d have to quit my job. With fuel costs and then a tax for driving, that would eat up the wages I get from the job that barely pays me.
You’re probably one of those racist, selfish Tea Party white people./s
I see benefits in taxing politicians based on public dollars spent.
Or ....every time you flush. (almost there on that one...)
They are now going to tax your right to freedom of travel.
Because our main method of travel now is driving.
As a matter of fact in many cases it is the only way to get from here to there.
Note to all the a-holes that I have argued with over the years who have defended the “driving is a privilege” B.S. - Here is the logical conclusion.
Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you all.
We have acquiesced while liberal pansies have been elected and moved to Washington to their life-long careers.
It doesn’t matter who you vote for, including the array of newbies who had Tea Party backing: they’ve all sold their souls to satan and have discarded any belief in God.
The Constitution has been used as toilet paper and Washington is full of socialist scum who hate us and the nation!
All I can say about such a law is Mass civil disobedience.
What can we do?
Stay home and not go to work?
Stop filing our 1040’s?
Have a true revolution?
Since our government has crapped on the Constitution and proved that what we call ‘democracy’ doesn’t work shall we look out to perhaps see a Francisco Franco?
Yes, and as people drive less the vehicles will last longer and then the auto manufacturing business which is roughly 10% of the economy will slow down and lots of employees can be laid off.
Also the highways will last longer and the highway construction and maintenance workers can be laid off.
And then we can employ more government workers for the employment offices.
These kinds of things aren’t enacted under a Democrat president.
They’re enacted under Republican preisents.
What the heck are they doing with the fuel tax we pay now? We ARE paying for the miles driven...we run out of gas, buy more fuel and pay more taxes, over and over again.
I’ll insert my generic post on Road Pricing...
Road Pricing
So here we are, looking at a mileage tax. It’s very emotional, since it squarely attacks one of our major freedoms in the US, which is the ability to get in our cars and drive around without ANYONE knowing what we’re doing. We can even drive cross-country and it’s likely that no one will know we ever left home, if we pay cash the whole way and stay clear of places (like motels) where they require ID. So, I want to take a calm and measured look at this.
In my case, based on my income (assuming, of course, it continues), my debts (very small, just a house payment at 20% of my take-home, and my cash at hand (plenty), I figure that I can pay whatever tolling rates they want, without barely noticing. And, if they did implement this scheme, it would almost certainly clear the roads of traffic, something that I would like (although others would have a tough time affording to drive on those clear roads - after all there is a reason why they’d be clear). In other words, from a purely selfish standpoint, I should support this scheme...but I don’t.
So why not? In a perfect world, where Atlas DOESN’T have to shrug and where everyone acted as finely tuned robots, nothing could be better than pricing road travel to assure the exact same level of traffic at 4:30 in the morning as 4:30 in the afternoon...and the same traffic at 5 AM Sunday, as 5 PM Friday. We would simply get the best use out of our roads. That is why this idea sits well at CATO and Heritage...where very well-paid, pointy-headed guys simply want to be able to drive home after work without having to “fight the traffic”. But, of course, it’s not that simple.
So, let’s step back and look at why we might want to impose a Vehicle Mileage Tax (VMT). I can think of several reasons:
1) There are two many cars on the road at a given time (i.e., rush hour).
2) We are importing too much oil.
3) We are not collecting enough revenue to fix and expand our roads.
4) People are driving cars that are too big
5) We are emitting too much carbon
6) Driving without restrictions simply represents too much freedom for a modern, progressive, society.
7) We want to sell-off our roads to someone with lots of cash, to pay down the national debt.
So, you step back and try to figure out how to address the above and look at the options.
Option 1: Increase revenue enough enough money to keep up with highway needs
Option 2: Increase revenue enough to seriously cut down on road travel and provide extra money for social programs.
Option 3: Control the movements of people, and allow those movements to be monitored...also pay back debts to other countries.
You find that an increase of the gas tax will help with everything except #6 and #7, which is controlling freedom and paying our debts. Even with a high gas tax, people will still drive where they want, when they want. If money is just needed for highway repair and expansion, an increase of the gas tax of, maybe, 25 to 50 cents per gallon will easily cover it. If we want to cut way back on imported oil, then 2 to 4 dollars per gallon of tax increase will cover it. That same increase (2 to 4 dollars per gallon) will also provide PLENTY of revenue to repair and expand highways...and the expanding part will not even be necessary with fuel prices that high (i.e., there will be a LOT less driving).
So we come down to #6 and #7. #6 (i.e., monitoring of peoples’ movements) is obvious - once you have GPS, then THE G-MAN will know where you are at any time. For #7, you’re getting into how to payback our creditors (mainly the Chinese and Japanese, but also much of Europe and US banks). The idea is that once a mileage-based tolling system is in place, the revenue can be sent overseas and our banks...which may prevent WW3 (particularly after we finish disarming). The amount of money that can be generated...if priced for maximum revenue, is likely 30 to 50 cents per mile (average)...or close to a trillion dollars per year.
To be honest, I have no clue what the long-term intentions are, I only look at what COULD be done.
Needless to say, this crap needs to be stopped PRONTO, as we have much better options than giving government control over where we drive, what we drive, and when we drive.
Those darn electric and hybrid vehicles escape some or all of the gas taxes.
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