Free Republic

(AUSTIN, Texas – July 25, 2023) Owners of electric vehicles in Texas will soon pay an additional fee when registering their vehicle. Senate Bill 505, passed by the Texas Legislature during the 88th Regular Session, adds a $200 annual fee for electric vehicle registration renewals and a $400 fee at the time of new electric vehicle purchases for the initial two-year registration period. The new fee will be collected on electric vehicle registrations processed on or after September 1, 2023, in addition to the standard vehicle registration fees and any tax due for the vehicle. Texans may renew their vehicle...

Introduction: Imagine, if you will, an alternate universe in which a confused old man - Joe Buckstop - stumbles into the presidency, and spends his entire term in his basement. Each evening, an aide walks downstairs and serves him his bowl of soup, and engages him in conversation about current events, in a losing effort to keep his mind hale. Tonight's episode is an excerpt from the ongoing series, "Evening Soup with Basement Joe," by John F. Di Leo, a fictional chronicle of the events of 2021, a political satire available in paperback or eBook from Amazon. "Hey, boss! You...

Potholes? Faded road stripes? Downed signs or faulty traffic lights? Too bad; take a number, and drive carefully. Among Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals for closing the state's $24 billion budget deficit is to redirect gas-tax away from cities and counties to pay debt service on state highway bonds — draining $744 million from local government coffers in the next fiscal year and $745 million in the year after that. "It'll have a devastating effect here," said Alameda County's Public Works Director Daniel Woldesenbet. "This isn't just a public works issue, but a public safety issue." Woldesenbet said his agency stands...

'Spy-in-the-sky' paves way for road pricing Motorists are being warned they may face "pay as you drive" road taxes as ministers launch the first ever trials of a scheme that could see them charged for every mile they drive. By David Millward, Transport Editor Last Updated: 1:06AM BST 18 Aug 2008 A prototype road-pricing device: the scheme involves a satellite tracking a vehicle's movements. Motorists will then receive a bill for their time on the road Photo: PAUL GROVER The Telegraph can disclose that the Government is pushing ahead with plans for a national road-pricing scheme, including testing "spy in...

Road tax doubles to curb ‘gas guzzlers’   Philip Webster, Political Editor   Gordon Brown is planning to double road tax for the country’s most polluting gas-guzzling cars in Wednesday’s Budget, The Times understands. As the Chancellor tries to enhance his green credentials before he takes over as Prime Minister, he is expected to say that the current tax of £210 for the 225,000 least fuel efficient cars purchased brand new since last April — including most 4x4s and sports cars — will rise steadily. Over the next two years it will increase to at least £400, it is...

Proposals Wanted! the University of Iowa Public Policy Center is conducting a major federally funded study to evaluate the public response to a mileage-based user charge (TAX-Ed). We are seeking to hire several marketing research firms to help recruit candidates for a two-year study. We need 240 participants per year in each of five cities. The demonstration sites for the project will bein the following locations: San Diego, CA Baltimore, MD Austin, TX Boise, ID and the Research Triangle in NC (Durham, raleigh and Chapel Hill. For complete information click on the RFP link at http://www.ulowa.edu/

If you run a red light in Arnold, you could get a ticket, even if you don't get pulled over by a police officer. The City Council is expected to vote tonight on a proposal to install cameras at the city's busiest traffic intersections. Car owners will be issued citations in the mail, even if they weren't the ones driving. To issue a ticket under the plan, the camera would have to capture high-resolution images of the car license plate and the signal clearly shining red. The proposed ordinance says people inside the vehicle - including the driver - will...

Government transport advisers are preparing for the launch of the world's largest road-tolling scheme to see whether it provides a workable model for the introduction of universal charging in Britain. Officials from the Department for Transport and Customs and Excise are to study the technology that goes live in Germany on Saturday, when a pay-as-you-go system for lorries comes into effect across the 7,400 miles of the country's motorway network. Thousands of British HGV drivers will find themselves liable for the charge, which will vary between 9p and 14p per mile, depending on the size and emissions level of their...

PHILADELPHIA - Paying your road taxes in the future might depend more on how much you drive than how much gasoline you pump. Texas is among a group of states researching how to replace the fuel tax with a fee based on the number of miles traveled — making every road a virtual tollway. Transportation officials from across the world discussed the concept here at last month's annual meetings of the trade groups representing the highway and tollway industries. Fees for miles traveled would be measured by Global Positioning System receivers embedded in vehicles. The system would track which roads...

PITTSBURGH -- State police are taking to the woods, dressed in camouflage and armed. But the weapons are radar guns, the quarry is speeders and the season never closes. Police at the Rockview Barracks near State College began using so-called ``camo cops'' patrols after a 44-vechicle crash on Interstate 80 that killed six people in January. ``As a result, there were many, many letters and questions and fingerpointing - What are you doing? What are you not doing enough of?'' said Lt. Jeffrey Watson, station commander. The tactic is catching on with state police in other counties. In one five-hour...

<p>WASHINGTON - Sen. George Allen has broken his silence on a proposed sales-tax increase for roads in Northern Virginia, saying he will vote against it.</p> <p>"The proponents simply have not convinced me that raising taxes in the fashion they have proposed is the best way to go," Allen said in a telephone interview yesterday while traveling in Virginia.</p>

A group of Peninsula Republicans are uniting to fight this fall's transportation tax referendum. Roughly 50 people, mostly GOP activists, organized a still-unnamed group Friday, according to three people who attended the group's initial meeting. The group members share a belief that it's wrong to raise the sales tax in order to build more roads, said Brenda Pogge, a prominent Hampton Republican who played a key role in coordinating the group. "This is about raising taxes," Pogge said. "It's not as much about building roads. Hampton Roads would have the highest sales tax in Virginia." Pogge's husband, Roger, a former...