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Posted on 07/03/2015 6:45:07 AM PDT by Enlightened1
Oregon launches program to tax drivers per mile Never autoplay videos
David Hastings is a rare American. This long-time hybrid car owner from Oregon wants to pay higher taxes for roads and bridges and says the current 30 cents per gallon state gas tax barely affects him.
"I've been free-loading on the highways for 20 years driving electric cars or hybrid cars, getting at least 40 miles to the gallon. So I haven't been paying my share," Hastings said.
Now, Hastings will pay more thanks to OReGO -- the first pay-by-the-mile program in the U.S.
Oregon’s Department of Transportation has been working on it for 15 years as a way to eventually replace the gas tax, which has been flat due to an influx of high mileage vehicles and people driving less.
Right now the program is voluntary and being capped at 5,000 participants, but an ODOT official told Fox News the ultimate goal is to make it mandatory and change the way states pay for roads -- forever.
"We're trying to make up for a growing deficit, really, because inflation's eating away at our ability to buy asphalt and rebar and the things we need to maintain the roads," said Tom Fuller of the Oregon Department of Transportation.
According to a national usage fee alliance, 28 states are in various stages of following down the same road. However, there are also privacy concerns. Two of the three OReGO systems track and store a car’s every move.
"To put a GPS monitor in everybody's car, the government already knows too much about us as it is," Jeff Kruse, a Republican lawmaker told Fox News.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Yea, like inflation doesn’t affect us little people either.
Higher taxes will hurt us even more.
If they needed more money for the roads, they could always raise the gas tax or add a special tax for electric cars to make it more fair.
But their not interested in that because they really want 2 things.
1. Congestion pricing, so they can punish you for using your car in ways they don’t like.
2. They want to be able to track every where you go... This is the real purpose and its always about control with this people.
The people really need to fight this.
"I, for one, welcome my new overlords." he continued, strapping on kneepads.
I once spoke to a water manager who was a classic case of a liberal being mugged by reality. He discovered that the more he raised the water rates...the less water people used. He was dumbfounded that people would make that adjustment - and at a loss as to how to make up for the shortfall in his projections.
Auto insurance in our area of Texas continues to climb. My state rep is also my State Farm agent - surely not a conflict of interest!!! He said if I wanted my premiums to go down I needed to install a device to record my driving habits. Not going to happen.
Wonder when anybody is going to wake up to all the bicycles on the roads now and how much “road” money we are spending on bike lanes and trails out of our road funds. These people need to be paying their fair share.
And to be fair the same amount of gasoline (or more) is being consumed - just spread across more users. They just do not know how to properly budget and spend the revenues.
The office liberal once said “I don’t mind paying more on my power bill for the environment.”
He’s behind on his taxes, swimming in student loan debt, and unable to keep up with his bills. But he’s okee dokee with paying more for his power bill. Unreal.
It is like this. Just get onboard for a train ride. When the train pulls in at the station stay in your line. Take off your shoes and clothes to get clean. Stay in your line to take a nice shower. Be a victim.......
He’s probably hoping for a student loan forgiveness from the Feds.
Liberals always think they are going to get more from Socialism they they have to put in the pot themselves. If they didn’t then they wouldn’t be for it.
You could have paid extra any time you wanted to moron.
Maybe they should tax the crap out of folks using studded tires as they destroy Oregon roads long before the effects of normal use ever come into play.
They inflate your money, the say they can’t afford infrastructure, then they raise your taxes rather than stopping the printing presses.
Those who live in Portland where everything is close by will see less impact then those who live in the rest of Oregon where it is rural and you have to drive a lot of miles to work or store. Portland makes the rules and uses all the money for their transportation needs, max line etc. We in the hinterlands get nothing but the higher tax bills.
Oregon is USSR on left coast.
Is the Golden Gate Bridge paid for yet? The bridge toll was suppose to pay for the cost of construction, and yet.....
Actually, light passenger vehicles don’t put a lot of wear and tear on roads. Truck traffic does most of the damage. And, the relationship between weight and fuel economy works well with the current taxing system.
Pavement design is done using ESALs...or equivalent single axle load - 18,000 lb. A large SUV weighs 6-7k lbs at most. A compact car less than 3 k lbs. And the relationship between weight and wear is not linear. One 18,000 lb axle from a truck does the equivalent of 3,000 times the damage of a 2,000 lb axle on an large car. And we’re just talking one axle...a truck can weigh up to 80,000 lbs...we’re talking one truck = around 6,000 large cars.
We enjoy the roads, so we pay taxes for it. I don’t complain. But just know that the vast majority of wear is done by trucks, and don’t fall into a trap of believing that a new system of taxation is somehow more fair, or based in any way on the reality of wear and tear.
This needs massive civil disobedience NOW and FOREVER!
Wow, they only charge a few times a regular car on toll roads for trucks. We need the trucks though. Its like the whole subsidize the trains to get cars off the road argument. We’re subsidizing trucks to keep the economy afloat.
**”We’re trying to make up for a growing deficit, really, because inflation’s eating away at our ability to buy asphalt and rebar and the things we need to maintain the roads,” said Tom Fuller of the Oregon Department of Transportation. **
Cry me a bucket.
If you would like more information about what's happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me.
I lost my Oregon list when my computer crashed last year, so please send me your name by FReepmail if you want to be on this list.
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