At least 18 states are now considering bills to do just this, and Oregon has initiated a pilot program. CBS News reports, "The Oregon pilot programs seeks to demonstrate whether a per-mile tax is a practical possibility. The state is finding 5,000 volunteers to pay 1.5-cents-per-mile tax instead of the 30 cents-per-gallon gas tax. Devices will report their mileage to the state.
Consider this: The programs being suggested or tested to track your mileage involve installing a GPS tracking device to determine not just how far you go, but which roads you use, how fast you go, and whether or not you're a "good" driver, i.e., how fast you come up to stops.
In addition to Oregon, California is considering a mileage "fee" plan as well. Here again, as The Los Angeles Times reports, "Millions of vehicles also would have to be equipped with odometer readers, smartphone applications or global positioning technology that would transmit data to state officials or a contractor, who would then bill owners for the miles traveled. Privacy advocates are especially concerned that — in this era of data mining and well-publicized credit card breaches — the technology could be used to learn not only how far people go, but when and where." (read more)
22 comments:
Progressive Auto insurance was one of the pilot programs.
Soon, we'll all have microchips. It's for the common good.
"The state is finding 5,000 volunteers to pay 1.5-cents-per-mile tax instead of the 30 cents-per-gallon gas tax."
Bullshit. Lie.
Gas taxes will remain and this NEW mile-per-gallon tax will be in addition to it. The government never repeals a tax. Added bonus: government tracking devices on our cars.
"The inevitable end result of 'progressive' politics is totalitarianism."
---------Eric Voegelin, Professor of Philosophy
How many of you geezers get a check from the government.
I sense a lot of takers in this bitter site
Titus probably doesn't drive. So, who cares if they come for the drivers.
Totalitarianism is hip and cool. Get with it, you old geezers.
You get social security checks? How dare you. That money, that you paid into the system, is for the government and people like Cher and Bill and Hillary. The hip, the connected, the Hamptons at Jacobs pillow. btw- You should have a rich mummy and daddy like I do.
now - Of I go. Mummy and daddy have a check for me, and my hog needs attention again. It's small, but he says he likes it.
...another tax on the poor and middle class.
It is a huge tax increase.
If my car gets 30 mpg and I now pay $.30 per gallon in tax, I effectively pay $.01 per mile in tax. An increase to $.015 per mile is a 50% tax increase.
The increase skyrockets if a car or truck averages, say, 22 mpg.
Effing commies.
Totalitarianism is hip and cool. Get with it, you old geezers.
You get social security checks? How dare you. That money, that you paid into the system, is for the government and people like Cher and Bill and Hillary. The hip, the connected, the Hamptons at Jacobs pillow. btw- You should have a rich mummy and daddy like I do.
now - Of I go. Mummy and daddy have a check for me, and my hog needs attention again. It's small, but he says he likes it.
LOL. I so want to chirbit that in my Paul Lynde voice.
I've come to realize that with Titus (and a couple others) it isn't about politics at all but rather a desire to control and to warp the narrative.
By all means. Paul Lynde it.
A book I just read (nearish future, sci-fi) had someone trying to do an internet search for Alexander Graham Bell and realizing that it was going to be next to impossible to find her and then speculating that maybe it wasn't just a weird way of naming children but a deliberate attempt to be unsearchable.
Many cultures in the past would name everyone the same thing, essentially. So there are five or six last names and boys are all number names and girls are all numbers or Dad's name with a feminine ending attached. We could do that again. Or name our children "Miley Cyrus" and "Amanda Bynes" or "Syvester Stalone" or "Vladmir Putin" or "Thomas Edison".
If cars are all electric (and someone finally starts to build nuke plants to charge them) gas taxes won't work for road building. But we may also get self-driving cars that can be sent off on red herring runs (though that would cost money) or (considering the self-driving thing) can be more easily used from a "pool" by a number of people because you'd be able to call a car when you needed it and it would come to you instead of having to figure out the logistics of how to deliver the car to the other co-owners.
With almost all state legislatures having at least one house controlled by the GOP, this will be a good way to sort out the big-government types in the GOP.
Taxed on mileage isn't a bad plan for a future world of electric cars, it's all the additional tracking elements that are offensive. Roads do have to be paid for and funds ought to be collected fairly.
(Yes, I realize that we're not looking at privatization of roads and tolls to pay for them, so it's going to be taxes.)
The Boulder-Denver turnpike was recently sold to an South American company and is being improved and widened. After they are finished, it will be a toll road.
oh joy.
Taxes for all sorts of things need to be collected fairly. How about we get our government to stop wasting so much and actually spend our money wisely on infrastructure projects we were promised already?
I'd be OK with that.
Meantime - Foreign companies buying U.S. roads, bridges
Correction: I'm a bit foggy on the purchaser of the Turnpike - could be Australian? Could benefit Goldman Sachs?
I'm unclear on the specifics. But it was sold, and it will be a toll road for the next 50 years.
Some guy named Beitel, who is fighting the privatization says:
"We believe the privatization of highways is like a high-interest credit card," he says. "The State of Colorado gets immediate money, but the taxpayers have to pay a high price in tolls over the next fifty years."
Why don't we focus on GPS for commercial aircraft, first. In the name of national - international - universal! (oooo universal - the left like that world) safety.
Michigan's Republican governor is asking for a referendum on raising the gasoline take from 19 cents/gal. to 44 cents/gal. and on diesel from 15 cents/gal to the same 44 cents/gal.
Dude has been good for Michigan so far, balanced buddget, etc., but nows he's doing a Bush41 on taxes. Increasing funds for the massive financial arrogant black hole called "MDOT" is hardly a good call. Dude is an accountant and should know better. Go back to that balance sheet & financial sheets Governor Snyder, and do your job. There are still funds ($1.2 Billion is sought) that could be culled elsewhere.
As for GPS monitoring for mileage to tax...please, oh, for f'ing sakes, just please. For one thing, I live in Michigan, but if I drive in Ohio, Inidana, Illinois, or Canada...I'd still be paying the new tax to Michigan. That will never fly...in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois anyway...they'll demand "passing through taxes" (as all over the road trucks now pay...that's what those little state stickers on their doors mean) for use of their roads without buying fuel.
If it comes out of Oregon, watch out.
April Apple said...
Progressive Auto insurance was one of the pilot programs.
Snapshot is no more than putting an actuary in your car to track your driving habits (how fast in what area, etc.) and apply it to the actuarial tables. I knew the guy who wrote the software for it (very bright, adaptive guy).
Pete may have been a hardcore Lefty, but he was still a very hard-headed businessman. This was no different than all those discounts that reward people for good driving habits, no accidents, etc.
He might be smart but I don't want anyone writing software that keeps track of my driving habits.
I'd also never write a check to a company named "progressive"
I am a Progressive customer, but I pass on Snapshot every chance I get.
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