Posted on 07/06/2006 1:25:43 PM PDT by proudofthesouth
I heard about the following on Fox News today and could hardly believe it. Thought fellow Freepers would be interested in this. After all, what starts in the western part of the U.S. usually heads eastward.
In 1919, Oregon was the first state to tax gasoline. This fall, the state will launch the nation's first high-tech experiment to tax drivers for the miles they travel rather than the gas they buy. The program is the first step in a long-term plan to replace the state's gasoline tax, which pays for about 40 percent of Oregon 's road projects. As in many states, Oregon officials are worried gas tax revenues won’t be able to keep up with the rising costs of road building, especially with improved mileage from both traditional and hybrid cards...............see link for rest of article
http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=32957
(Excerpt) Read more at stateline.org ...
Let the fraud begin.
The argument goes that the motorcyclist is an adult and can make informed consent your six-year-old isn't and can't. I don't think it makes any sense either but that's were the logic is.
Considering I live in Texas...where driving for an hour each way to work is pretty common...I don't like it.
This was talked about here in California too....I don't see it happening.
States are losing money because of more efficient cars...well you can't have it both ways.
Given that Oregon is pretty crunchy, how would taxing miles driven be compatible with encouraging conservation of fossil fuels? Are they planning to tax both the gas and the miles driven? If they went with just miles driven how could they attack the SUVs for being wastful? Would there be different rates per mile based on the weight of the vehicle? This is what we do with trucks. Seems like an extremely convoluted solution in search of a problem.
How long will it take to include automatic fines for speeding as well?
So ... lets see, I can pay 24 cents a gallon, or 1.2 cents per mile, which equates to 20mpg. Sounds like a deal if I am driving my old clunker that gets 6mpg, but would really suck if I am driving a new Hybrid. Well, sounds like an incentive to drive the clunker.
This is social engineering on a massive scale ... and I think even the libs would object to this one. All in all, I would put this on par with taking away the automatic deduction for income taxes, and making all tax bills paid directly to the government once a year. All it would take would be one invoice, and all the libs would be voted out of office forever.
My guess is that this will be tried, and then dropped when the population realizes how invasive this is, and when the libs realize how dangerous this is to their chances of staying involved with Governing.
Welcome to Oregon. Now put this on your car. Happy traveling!.....
There's nothing 'novel' about a tax.
It's more like 'status quo'.
But this isn't right! Oregon is not punishing the SUV drivers!
If the SUV guy drives 100 miles and use 10 gallons of gas, let's say, and a guy drives his Honda Civic and uses 3 gallons, the Civic guy has the same tax as the SUV guy. The Honda guy gets his taxes raised.
From a liberal point of view, this does not make sense.
Perhaps,at first,they'd only do it on Interstates and other major roads.If so,they could easily do it in the same way that they collect tolls in the Northeast...with a transponder that you attach to your windshield that communicates with a receiver on the highway.
Most of them that I've seen require you to go 15 MPH as you pass the receiver,but one I saw (in NJ,DE or MD..can't recall which) allows you to do 55 MPH as you're passing.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1576912/posts
AND HERE
[snip]
"You have to have a revenue-collection system in place to respond to that," says James Whitty, manager of the office of innovative partnerships and alternative funding for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Whitty and others propose taxing you on how far you drive, not how much gas you use. There are other approaches being considered to supplement the gas tax in years to come, but the so-called mileage tax is gaining attention as the replacement that many say will eventually be needed.
Whitty believes that most cars eventually could be outfitted with a global positioning device and computer to determine miles traveled in a given state - information that would be used to determine the tax bill.
Rest of the story...HERE
It's the wave of the future.
Yep. How are they going to enforce this? Take your car away? Geeez, then there will be even LESS revenue!
Is there even one brain cell kicking the Oregon legislature?
I thing the age group that drives the most is the
middle aged employed sector. I drive more now in my
dotage than I did as a kid.
The ones in Houston, Texas work at +80 mph.
I can't wait till the next election to see how many of these morons get re-elected!..........
They have those in Illinois for the toll roads. The little doo-dad gets pinged at the toll and your 'account' gets debited. You use a credit card to replenish the account in pre-paid amounts.
So, maybe all the roads in Oregon will become tolls then.
Hey, TOLLS FOR TROLLS!!!
(my apologies to those lonely Freepers in Oregon)
>>From a liberal point of view, this does not make sense.
Since when do liberals make sense in the first place?
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