Fuel tax could be replaced with by-the-mile road tax

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/nation/story/71078.html

Fuel tax could be replaced with by-the-mile road tax

By Steve Everly | The Kansas City Star
Posted on Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove — tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center.

What once was science fiction is being field-tested by the University of Iowa to iron out the wrinkles should a by-the-mile road tax ever be enacted.

Besides the technological advances making such a tax possible, the idea is getting a hard push from a growing number of transportation experts and officials. That is because the traditional by-the-gallon fuel tax, struggling to keep up with road building and maintenance demands, could fall even farther behind as vehicles' gas mileage rises and more alternative-fuel vehicles come on line.

The idea of shifting to a by-the-mile tax has been discussed for years, but it now appears to be getting more serious attention. A federal commission, after a two-year study, concluded earlier this year that the road tax was the "best path forward" to keep revenues flowing to highway and transportation projects, and could be an important new tool to help manage traffic and relieve congestion.

The decision by the 15-member National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission was unanimous, which surprised Robert Atkinson, the group's chairman. But he said it became clear as the commission's work progressed that a road tax on miles traveled was the best option.

"If you're committed to the system being improved then it was a no-brainer," he said.

How long will it take Government Motors to comply?

over 20% of the price of gas is just taxes. I wonder if anyone knows the true amount?

I don't like more Big Brother stuff though.

Bad for traveling salesmen like me.


Plus, it's new.



I don't like it.

Besides not liking any new taxes, I'm not at all thrilled that Big Brother could track my whereabouts.

Cool, more taxes. More play money for the left to buy votes with. Piling tax after tax after tax after tax on the American people. It appears some in D.C. weren't paying attention in their U.S. history classes...

They aren't paying attention to anything but their leftist agenda. There are warning sirens going off everywhere - from Warren Buffet to the CBO - but they are blind, deaf, and definitely dumb to all of them!

It'd be like driving on a toll road... but everywhere.

Fantastic.

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blind, deaf, and definitely dumb

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Wouldn't this hurt those who have better gas mileage?

Anyway... it's all speculation at this point. It'd be impossible to retro fit all cars and the government would be double dipping people who have it installed at the pump and at the wheel. I doubt it goes anywhere.

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Originally Posted by jman3000

Wouldn't this hurt those who have better gas mileage?

Anyway... it's all speculation at this point. I doubt it goes anywhere because it's too intrusive and it'd be impossible to retrofit all cars. It'd be impossible to retro fit all cars and the government would be double dipping with those with it installed at the pump and at the wheel.

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Howabout toll roads? Triple taxation...

The liberals in Oregon have been talking about it for years with resistance. To accomplish it, they want to put a GPS data system in the cars, to track where you drive and tax according to traffic density as well.

Talk about government intrusion... Monitoring where and when you drive!

I'm not for stupid ideas like this, but from a practicality standpoint this is bugging me.

Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier and a whole lot cheaper to just have them check your odometer once a year as another step to getting your car inspection sticker? At least then you could repeal the sales tax immediately, but instead of getting by the mile taxes it would just be 1 lump sum at the end of the year.


Expensive ass GPS units in every damn car. An entirely new bureaucracy in a government billing center.

Retardedly wasteful.

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Originally Posted by jman3000

Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier and a whole lot cheaper to just have them check your odometer once a year as another step to getting your car inspection sticker? At least then you could repeal the sales tax immediately, but instead of getting by the mile taxes it would just be 1 lump sum at the end of the year.


Expensive ass GPS units in every damn car. An entirely new bureaucracy in a government billing center.

Retardedly wasteful.

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You have no place in government.

Being taxed by the mile is against my religion and I demand the Federal Government respect my beliefs.


They have been trying to get this through (Rhode Island, etc) for years.

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Originally Posted by SnakeBoy

You have no place in government.

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ha... I'm actually interviewing for an internship at DHS next week : p

i actually thought about this right when all this cap and trade talk began early last year, and actually i'm kinda freaked out that it might be something not far fetched now. it's actually the idea that jman came up with, but i just thought of registration. inspection you can buy fakes 'cause cops don't have the info that your inspection is expire. they have to rely on sight of the design of the sticker, but it's easy to counterfeit. expired registrations can be accessed pulling up your license number. believe me. i know.


another thing, carbon tax related, i thought about then is they would somehow tax us for doing barbeques. on wood, charcoal, propane. i can imagine how much more expensive barbeque restaurants would get. more and more i can see that easily happen...........and some of you keep on with the R against D debate......

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Originally Posted by Viva Las Espuelas

another thing, carbon tax related, i thought about then is they would somehow tax us for doing barbeques. on wood, charcoal, propane. i can imagine how much more expensive barbeque restaurants would get. more and more i can see that easily happen...........and some of you keep on with the R against D debate......

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Uhm... cooking with gas or electricity uses energy too. I'm pretty sure the government won't get their hands messy with people's backyard barbecues, or even barbecue restaurants.

I'll throw in my two cents that I'm leery of this GPS system too. As it is, people who drive more have to buy more gasoline. Plus, it's a built-in incentive now to get a car that has better MPG.

Not only that, insurance companies could directly asses how many miles you drove last year by that data and adjust your policy accordingly.
Or police could tell if you were speeding if you went from point A to point B in an amount of time smaller than what it should really be if you were doing the posted speed limit.

Where does it stop?

Just raise the damn gas tax and be done with it. There's no issues with the government tracking everyone's whereabouts, the infrastructure to collect the taxes already exists, you don't have to worry about not collecting tax revenue from out of state vehicles who aren't hooked up to the GPS, you don't have to worry about people not paying their tax bill, and it provides an extra incentive for people to drive fuel efficient cars.

Yeah, I certainly don't approve of the GPS driven by-the-mile tax idea. I have no interest in effectively being lo-jacked at all times. It's stupid to give up that much privacy.

They should definitely change vehicle registration fees to scale inversely with gas mileage, and I would love to see a by-the-mile tax replace the gas tax provided it is done with GPS (or anything that violates privacy).

Of course, a by-the-mile tax has to keep fuel efficient cars cheaper than other cars to operate, otherwise it defeats the purpose.

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Originally Posted by LnGrrrR

Uhm... cooking with gas or electricity uses energy too. I'm pretty sure the government won't get their hands messy with people's backyard barbecues, or even barbecue restaurants.

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let's just wait and see and then come back to this.

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Originally Posted by Viva Las Espuelas

let's just wait and see and then come back to this.

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Sure! I'm down for that.

On a side note, I think it's interesting that no one on the boards thinks this is a good idea. :lol

I'm starting to grow weary of this whole "United States of America" thing.

just great... :rolleyes