Thank you Howie for sharing your talents with us!
Posted on 07/08/2002 12:02:33 PM PDT by MattGarrett
Rush Limbaugh read a story today which states that Gray Davis plans to sign the SUV Tax Bill. AB 1493 (formerly known as AB 1058) will give California Air Resources Board the go ahead to work on ways to reduce "greenhouse gases." In one report CARB authored, they suggested the per mile tax, gas tax increase and SUV tax. Proponents of the bill are quick to argue that this bill does not raise taxes and CARB does not have the authority to enact any of their suggestions.
The bill will affix a tax of 2 cents for every mile driven in an SUV, MiniVan or truck, 50 extra cents per gallon of gasoline, and $3500 on all SUV, Minivan, or truck purchases.
Politicians pulled a dirty trick and changed the bill number, reinstating AB 1058 as AB 1493 late on a Friday night. They ran it through the legislature and passed it a Monday afternoon - with no comment from the public.
Stating that the bill creates the perfect balance between driver choice and responsible environmental policy, Davis indicated his intention to sign the bill.
Does the bill tax mileage put on driving out of state?
I agree to a certain extent. The thing that really yanks my chain is that the people that drive these things in places I frequent (e.g. Silicon Valley) is that most really aren't cognizant of what an SUV is and what it can do. A lot of Yuppie folk seem to think they can buy into a rugged outdoorsy lifestyle by buying an SUV. Ignoring the drooling fools who drive them like they are playing Pole Position, you have the Abercrombies that like to take their shiny new SUVs "off-roading". Most "SUVs" as they come from the factory are built like minivans i.e. utterly unsuitable for anything vaguely resembling real off-road terrain. I have lost track of the number of shiny SUVs I've towed out of the backwaters of the California mountains and Nevada with my trusty old Bronco (which is properly setup for when I am on my ranch in Nevada). On one fine day in Lake Tahoe last year, I towed THREE different city slickers out of the wilderness who had managed to get their vehicles stuck and/or damaged through their own ignorance and stupidity. Unfortunately, they were all blocking a road I was trying to traverse with no safe clearance to go around. Needless to say, my good samaritan streak was wearing thin several hours later.
Buying a minivan badged with an "SUV" label doesn't mean that you can travel cross-country like Rancher Slim and his modified full-size beater pickup. And even if you have a REAL properly equipped SUV, off-road driving in rugged terrain requires substantial experience and knowledge or you'll trash your vehicle or get stuck in a matter of miles regardless. I wouldn't mind that fools are stranding themselves in the wilderness except for the number of times it has inconvenienced me, and if it wasn't me, it would probably be some organization funded with my tax dollars pulling them out.
Or at least that is my anti-SUV-driver rant. I'm just sick of lecturing Abercrombies who think that owning the vehicle confers ability.
The good news is that if Grayout signs the bill, he's probably also signing his political death warrant.
We westerners laugh at your puny New England "states". They are too small to even be counties out here.
If Gray-Out signs this bill, the auto industry will oppose it in court and it will get thrown out. Not to mention the fact that he'll lose more ground in the polls because 47% of the people in California drive SUVs, and it isn't going to be long before that number is over 50%. People are buying these things like crazy.
Not sure what his source is on this, seems kind of high to me too.
MKM
I just saw a shiny, brand-new Land Rover with anti-Bush stickers on it today. I wonder if the brainless doctor/lawyer's trophy wife behind the wheel will be able to absorb how this law will effect her. On second thought, nawwww. Her husband probably takes care of the bills, too.
Just out of curiousity could someone explain to me how they are going to collect a tax on every mile driven in a truck or SUV?
By entering the odometer reading on the vehicle during smog checks or reading it directly off the OBD (II or III) diagnostic chip during same...
Thank you Howie for sharing your talents with us!
You mean it would annoy Maxine Waters?
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
That happens with everything, though. Those same people you describe take lessons in a sailing skiff on the Charles and then take a 40' Benetau out in the atlantic in a September nor'easter, because they saw a TV show where someone (like, an experienced sailing captain) did it. Or the doctor who skips a lot of training in his high-performance plane, because, hey, he's a surgeon...
While it is annoying that the Coast Guard must go out in the first place and the Civil Air Patrol (or the County Medical Examiner) in the second, we can't, as a society, set a rule that only smart people are to be saved and dummies have to take their lumps.
Same with the SUVs. Sure, I laugh myself incontinent when watching some poor wife trying to parallel-park a Suburban or Escalade in a quaint New England village with thready streets. I howl at the backwards-ballcap bozo who's trying to throw an Excursion through highway traffic like he thinks he's Fangio or Moss (at 6 miles per gallon!). But I don't question their right to do that, if that's what they want.
I just wish they weren't too timid to take those wobbly things out of the left lane. Instead they sit there, fat, dumb and happy, and I have to pass on the right. (If it's backwards-hat bozo, THEN he'll speed up). But it's a free country and I am content to leave them be if they do the same to me.
I guess Gray Davis isn't.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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