Replace the Gas Tax — with Tolls: A more sensible, efficient way to make sure road users pay.

National Review ^ | 03/11/2014 | Michael Barone

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Hell NO.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

What will happen to all the "special" projects funded with gas tax money that have nothing to do with roads or vehicular transportation?

The gas tax is a slush fund. It will never end. They'll just add toll roads to the mix as another way to harvest dollars from the host organisms.

[INVAR]

Idiocy.

They will erect the tolls and NEVER get rid of the gas tax, and we’ll be stuck with BOTH revenue confiscation schemes by the government.

RULE OF LIFE NO. 1: Government NEVER - EVER limits itself or reduces what it confiscates.

[SolidRedState]

Ridiculous. Gas tax is the fairest way to collect tax if you are going to tax by useage. The more you drive the more you pay.

Toll roads. Limited access points. Only those driving on those roads would pay.

[mountainlion]

What is wrong with not putting gas tax monies in the general fund and wasting it on pork? Why not build and repair roads with road tax monies?

[DManA]

It might work of you at the same time privatized the stretch of road in question. That’ll never happen.

Also most roads have hundreds and thousands of on grade entrances. How do you practically handle that? Sensors at the end of every driveway?

[Buckeye McFrog]

Step 1 - Require automakers to install GPS tracking systems on all new vehicles.

Step 2 - Pass a law requiring all subsequent data to be turned over to the Federal Government to charge a per-mile tax.

Step 3 - Give access to that data to political hacks like Lois Lerner so that they can use the media to ream the next GOP Presidential Hopeful whose car just happens to turn up in the parking lot of a local brothel.

[FatherofFive]

This makes no sense. Those who use the roads most use the most gas.

[Black Agnes]

Thread winner. No further comments needed.

[bert]

Does a Prius pay it’s fair share?

[Gaffer]

If you let them tax the roads you travel; in addition to taxing your income, discretionary spending items, basic staples, your home, your car, your HEALTHCARE; eventually they will be getting around to taxing the air that your breathe.

[longtermmemmory]

only the little people will pay that.

the important bureacrats will have no tracking or auto expempt tracking meaning they will never pay. (see vips who are never given a red light ticket)

During WWII all the politicians demanded an exemption card for gas rationing.

[Yo-Yo]

Equip every vehicle with a GPS tracking device that uploads its data whenever it passes by prepositioned checkpoints. Then a monthly statement can be sent to the vehicle owner for their share of road maintenance, and what type of road they used.

The Government having a way to track the whereabouts of every vehicle in the country. What could possibly go wrong...

[FatherofFive]

Does a Prius pay it’s fair share?

There is tax on electricity usage.

[expat2]

I am disappointed by the usually sensible Barone. This is the problem:They....can be adjusted to reflect the cost of maintenance and improvements.

It is the 'adjustment' that worries me.

[expat2]

There is already a Rain Tax in MD.

[bert]

That tax is on metered juice off the grid. Doesn’t the Prius generate it’s own battery charging juice?

[Deek]

Roads are not taxed, but should be, or rather should have user fees associated so government recovers what it costs to build and maintain them. We would not want the government handing out stuff for free, no?

Gas is taxed, but it is a poor way to pay for roads. The cost of a lane-mile of road varies dramatically, and fuel economy varies dramatically between vehicles. Alternative fuels like electric and CNG make this worse.

Just take an odometer reading once a year, factor in vehicle weight, and pay that amount.

[Buckeye McFrog]

They....can be adjusted to reflect the cost of maintenance and improvements.

Or the cost of all those no-show jobs going to Tony Soprano and his crew.