Posted on 12/06/2014 5:31:30 PM PST by Steelfish
Tracking Miles As Gas Tax Alternative Raises Fairness, Privacy Concerns Los Angeles California officials are testing the idea of a mileage fee to replace the state tax of 36 cents per gallon of gas. By DAN WEIKEL Among those who would be hardest hit by a mileage fee are owners of hybrids and electric cars Standing at a Chevron station in Long Beach, Teresa Gutierrez wished she was pumping fuel into a gas-sipping hybrid instead of her hulking GMC Yukon.
She was nevertheless cool to the idea that the state might start raising money for highway repairs by replacing the traditional gasoline tax with a fee based on how far people drive. Penalizing owners of hybrids and electric cars doesn't feel right, Gutierrez said. "It defeats their green purpose."
Jesus Velez also objected as he filled the 28-gallon tank of his Lincoln Navigator. Then he realized that owners of higher-mileage cars buy far less fuel, and therefore pay far less in gas taxes. A per-mile fee "would make it fairer for everyone," he concluded.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The federal government consistently demonstrates that if a technology or capability exists some federal agency will use it and abuse it regardless of rules, laws or the US Constitution.
Generally speaking, the gas tax does a very good job of this without needing to be adjusted.
Big vehicles, which damage roads more, tend to use more gas. A person owning a big vehicle pays more in taxes.
The rich tend to buy vehicles that are more luxurious and are usually less efficient. They pay more taxes.
If you drive a lot, you will buy a lot of gas and will pay more taxes.
All these concerns are built in the gas tax already.
Force you to fit a GPS, of course.
I have nothing to worry about - I have an old Jaguar and everyone ‘knows’ those things kill anything electronic attached to them. :D
Agree...the ONLY ISSUE is that politicians don’t have the gonads to increase the gas tax to even account for inflation...and to also end diversions of that money (in Texas, 25% of our state gas tax goes to ‘education’; similar at the federal level, with 25% of the federal gas tax going to ‘reduce the deficit’).
Nope. You can plug in the latest Garmin GPS and if you aren’t familiar with the old car’s ‘quirks’ it will be dead inside a week.
Look at what trucks have to file every quarter. IFTA tax. Have to track fuel usage, purchase etc per state and pay a tax if you bought in a cheaper state and drove in a higher taxed state. This is what these idiots will end up with. And of course it’ll cost more. Plus there will be cheaters everywhere.
As much as they can facilitate it, us. Of course that’s if we still ask for the service once the prices go astronomical.
Those are the ones who suffer the most whenever a gov’t bureaucracy decides to enforce a new regulation.
Yet, for the most part, they continue to vote for feeding these kind of regs.
In my county last month we had a referendum on raising the sales tax 1/4 cent, supposedly to go to the schools.
BUT there was no legal requirement for the county to use the money for schools; legally, it just went into the general fund.
The tax increase was defeated.
IFTA isn't a tax. It's a reconciliation of taxes paid, vs. taxes owed. It stands for International Fuel Tax Agreement, and was an agreement between the trucking industry and the states with respect to fuel taxes paid vs. due. Prior to IFTA, companies had to file for permits in, and file tax reports to, each and every state they drove in to pay these same taxes. IFTA isn't the problem. It was a reasonable solution to a problem.
It's quite different for average Joes just driving the family sedan cross-country.
You file that one report to your base jurisdiction and pay any amount due (or get your refund from) that same jurisdiction. Then all the funds sent to your base jurisdiction are sent to/received from the other jurisdictions via a clearing house. You pay no more in taxes than you would have the old way by filing in each and every state in which you drove.
As with all new taxes. The old gas tax will remain, the new mileage tax will be imposed. The state will be double dipping.
I'm with you on that one! TN has a high sales tax but it's fair across the board, rather than an income tax that only taxes the working person. I haven't been out of TN in probably 10 years, except for a quick hop across the border into Georgia now and then. Now, if we could just get our farmers and government to stop worshiping illegals!
I am by no means in favor of such a scheme... but the idea of some tree-hugger in their electric go-cart getting the same tax bill as anyone else who drove the same distance in a gas-guzzler makes me laugh out loud.
No tax ever dies. If they get a mileage tax, it is certain they’ll keep the per gallon tax, too. You’ll end up paying both. Plus there is the little matter of retrofit or die for older vehicles. I have a few in their 40s or older, and I’m not chopping them up, and I’m not parking them, either.
In our state, there already is. The heavier a vehicle, the more it costs for registration.
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