Posted on 06/07/2024 9:22:56 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
California has the highest income tax rate in the country (top tier of 14.4 percent). It has the highest statewide sales tax rate (7.25 percent, plus local sales taxes). It has the highest gas tax rate ($0.78 per gallon). Yet, it ranks third to last in the country in terms of road quality.
The old joke is that California would tax the air we breathe if it could. Well, California’s latest tax proposal comes close. The state is recruiting drivers for a pilot program to track and tax the miles they drive.
The plan is borne from the fact that Californians have switched to electric and hybrid vehicles at a faster rate than other states, spurred on by large state, as well as federal, subsidies. As a result, gas consumption has declined, in turn reducing the state’s gas tax receipts. One might think this could be rectified by simply shifting money from the general fund to make up for it. But the state faces up to a $55 billion deficit this year, causing it to consider a host of additional taxes, including a wealth tax.
California has long relied upon the gas tax to take care of its roads. It was a good idea at first. The gas tax was initially used in lieu of toll roads, which made a lot of sense. Pricing the cost of road maintenance into the price of gas was a good way of taxing people based upon usage. Toll roads do the same, but they are cumbersome, requiring toll booths, workers, cash, and long lines. However, California ultimately succumbed to the need for more money and added some toll roads in addition to the gas tax.
But thanks to the state’s green initiative, it has convinced Californians to switch from gas to hybrid or electric vehicles. While electric vehicles are more expensive, Californians were enticed to buy them by the subsidies and by the savings they would enjoy by no longer having to buy gas. But like most government programs, this was not well thought out. California has lost millions in tax revenue due to this scheme and now needs to make that up. From the myriad of options available to it, it has chosen a plan to begin tracking drivers with GPS monitors.
Buyers of electric cars may not have been aware of the new tax-by-the-mile plan before they made the decision to purchase their vehicle. Had they known about the potential added cost, they may have made a different decision. But regardless, California law mandates that all new car sales be electric by 2035.
Under the new plan, according to Caltrans, mileage could be tracked by plugging an electronic device into a vehicle or using the vehicle’s tracking system. There was a time when many Californians were civil libertarians and would have vehemently opposed such a government intrusion into their personal lives. But many today put their undying trust in the government, believing it to be infallible and capable of curing all societal ills. We saw during the pandemic how most Californians had no problem trusting the government to interfere in virtually all elements of private life, mandating when we could leave our homes, who we could invite into our homes, and that we inject an unproven vaccine. Allowing the government to track our every move is right in line with such mandates.
There is no telling what the government may use this new information for. The main page of the Caltrans website for the program, entitled “California Road Charge,” presents the tagline, “Funding transportation in an equitable way.” There’s that word again. Government-imposed “equity” can take any number of forms. On the next page it states that the charge is, “Fair. Transparent. Sustainable.”
We already know California is trying to increase the cost of fossil fuels to drive people to electric cars and green energy like wind and solar. The state has even sued the oil companies for causing climate change, in order to make it “more expensive to be dirty than clean,” according to state Attorney General Rob Bonta. By charging an exorbitant fee per mile, it could effectively reduce the number of cars on the road to reduce climate change. It could also easily charge varying fees based on driver income to impose “equity.” It could also charge varying fees based upon miles driven, penalizing those who the government determines drive too much. It could also add a tax for homeless housing, as Los Angeles recently did on all retail sales.
One thing we know, the tax is unlikely to do is actually improve the roads. California has ranked toward the bottom of all states in road quality for a long time, pre-dating the impact of electric cars. In 2016, Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report listed California 43rd among states in road quality. It has since gotten worse, dropping in 2019 to 45th and in 2020 to 47th. Perhaps these drops are starting to reflect the impact of the reduced gas tax revenue, but 43rd was not a good starting point, especially for a state with great weather which does not have to deal with the impact of snow, ice, and salt.
The truth is, California has greater priorities than roads. Road upkeep is a basic, old-school obligation of government. It’s not sexy. State politicians are more focused on changing the earth’s temperature, rectifying the scourge of slavery, and building housing for all. In California, basic needs like roads, schools, and safety take a back seat.
But will the tax on gas be reduced? Don’t be silly.
Socialist Utopia of California
Keep voting Democrat.
The CA mileage tax will be in addition to their fuel taxes. Count on it.
16 years later, billions of dollars wasted on high speed rail - and not a single inch of track has been built.
Yep. In San Francisco, all the toll booths over the bridges are automated - there is an automatic photo taken of your license plate and you are sent a bill, around $12.00 now.
A local told me the toll booth operators were about to go on strike so the city automated the entire system.
I have an idea.
They already charge a luxury tax for a class of certain vehicles. Why not include EV's and charge the difference between what a typical EV driver would have paid with an ICE and what they pay to charge their vehicle now?
“Next they’ll be taxing air by the breath.”
Actually, only the carbon dioxide you breathe out.
there is an automatic photo taken of your license plate and you are sent a bill
= = =
I got a letter with such a bill.
In the corner was a black blob, that I finally figured out was the liscence plate photo. But one number was illegible. So I think they sent out 10 letters, to all the possibles.
Problem was the tailgate was a Ford, my registration is Chevy, and I had never been within 800 miles of their camera.
They accepted my argument. The threat was to block my registration at DMV.
They are using the lost gas taxes from electric cars as an excuse to somehow collect everyone’s actual car miles driven (more personal data collection to to be added to all your other personal data every dam busisness and web outfit is collecting - and selling to U.S. intelligence agencies).
The scheme is not needed. They only need to require EV charging points to have separate electric meters and those meters cause a collection of a tax of so much per kwh, paid by the electric supplier and passed on to the owner or user of the metered location.
They do not NEED to collect miles driven from anyone.
Other states do this with toll roads.
Not a thing green about them.
I don’t care if people want them, just don’t force the rest of us.
Illinois flirted with this, too.
California will implement this because it kills two birds with one stone: it’s optics to help meet climate goals and it salivates the elite’s sadistic disdain for anyone that lives inland.
Who gets screwed over the most by a mileage tax? Commuters that endure hours of daily commute so that they can live in a somewhat affordable single-family home. The other big loser is the ag industry, where mileage piles up with farm-to-market transport and expenses from those that support the industry and travel substantial miles.
This may turn out like the “dry” counties in Texas where you can’t buy booze. Liquor stores are just across the county line. Maybe car dealerships will pop up just across the Cali state border.
Now you see why fedzilla mandated telecommunications modems in all new cars in 2018 ish.
Where do I plug their shitty little dongle into my 91 wrangler? They’re crazy if they think I’ll let them put a tracker in cars.
They try this shit and i’m pulling my registration of all my cars and my fleet cars and moving them to an idaho based llc.
“Maybe car dealerships will pop up just across the Cali state border.”
Butyou still have to register in CA ...
don’t bring my grammar into this, she was a saint.
What a wonderful way to eliminate cars, which is the ultimate goal of all this “green’ propaganda. Simply tax them out of existence. Has anyone ever seen a tax that didn’t keep rising?
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