{^_^}

{^_^}

I’m not saying it will be easy. Clearly, using gasoline consumption as a proxy for road use is an easier way to go. But looking to the future is not that bad an idea. You might find that a few hundred electronic “toll booths” would provide coverage of 99% of drivers if placed properly. I’m not saying they would just that they might. Couple than with an EZPass-like system that reports ID and mileage and your collection work is almost done. Billed to your toll account or to your home every other month. No details of your driving except the meters you passed through and your mileage.

Add a line to the state income tax for that has your mileage and you could use estimated payments through the year withheld as part of the State Income tax.

Lots of options that could be looked at that do not have a high cost on the user. Of course, this doesn’t capture funds from transient users from other states. Nothing is perfect.

That is why you study it BEFORE it is an issue. Instead of waiting until the bonuses are paid and taxing them back. But that is another story.

Hmmmm.

Fixed it for ya.

Weeellll, get a high mileage car and suddenly, they shift to focus to miles driven. One would think they’d slap us all on the back for being soooooo green.

Not about the environment. Never was, never will be. It is about getting YOUR money from YOU.

“We realize that in the future, cars aren’t going to be powered by fuel, probably,”

Yeah, they’re going to be run on pyramid power, crystal resonances, and happy thoughts.

The state wonders where it will get its revenue if gasoline becomes obsolete.

This seems like a perfect opportunity to privatize the freeways.

You should totally suggest that to Pawlenty when you go for coffee.

I think, to improve the revenue stream they should bring back pay toilets. I bet people will walk faster then!

Anothger suggestion would be the new simplified 1040. It has only two lines: 1. How much did you make last year? 2. Send it in.

Same-distance mileage at different hours can make a big difference. Driving in stop-and-go traffic uses up a lot more gas than is used when driving at non peak times. So the above is a good point – you’re getting the mileage tax, but not the consumption tax.

NOW they have their excuse for making a new GPS-based device – a simple odometer has no time stamp, so they can’t screw you for driving during rush hour!

Mileage Tax + Consumption Tax + Ugly Car Sin Tax + Smoker Sin Tax + Lone-Driver Tax + All-Terrain Tire Tax + ……….

*sigh*

Mostly I agree with you on this one. But this is bull:

“A mileage tax would require the installation of GPS equipment on every motor vehicle and an enforcement bureaucracy to ensure that drivers didn’t disable it. The cost of the devices would run to the billions just on the initial rollout.”

This need be no different than going in for emissions checks. Note down the current mileage as listed on the odometer. Then next year, note it again, and subtract. Voila, you have the annual miles. No GPS needed, nor anything of the kind. Simple existing equipment.

Regarding:
“The Obama administration would have to spend more millions, if not billions, tracking the mileage on all of these cars.”

and

“… an enforcement bureaucracy …”

Absolutely, these are true. No need to say ‘the Obama administration’ – government PERIOD can never do these things cheaply, well, or efficiently.

But let’s call an odometer an odometer.

Oh. And it will REALLY suck to get jabbed with this as a once-a-year fee, after doing the subtraction. But maybe that’s one good thing? Right now, we’re so well-conditioned, we pay that gas tax every few days and just consider it “the price of gas.” This will remind us that it’s an ugly price indeed.

One last thing – did he really say “We realize that in the future, cars aren’t going to be powered by fuel…”? Aren’t all of the other optional energy sources fuels of a sort, too? I mean, NOTHIN’ is FREE, guvner.

1. Separate vehicles into classes- example A is 0-15mpg, B is 16-20 mpg, etc. This would be done by the manufacturer and coded into the VIN.

2. Everybody has to get a new tag or sticker every year (or the government loses another revenue stream). Simply have the tag agent enter the current mileage into the simple relational database that prints out a tax bill based on mileage and class of vehicle. The poor taxpaying chump pays up to get the tag or sticker renewal.

3. This would even negate CAFE standards because everybody would buy the most cost effective vehicle based on class. This would eliminate the expensive and intrusive GPS system for charging tax and the assult on civil liberties.

Of course, the tax , like the current tax, will not go to improve the transportation infrastructure of the whole country, but will help the subway systems in the big cities and the politician’s pockets.

I have never ceased being amazed at the abject stupidity of city/county/ and state level politicians and bureaucrats on solving problems like this. It is probably because most of them are uneducated patronage types, or listening to some peddler that has a new system that they must have. (by uneducated I mean anyone who went to higher education and did not take the math like an engineer.) The American people will get what they deserve (editorial).

Count to 10 on March 19, 2009 at 5:17 PM

Who’s flipping out? I simply pointed out that having people who hate us owning roads is not a good thing. As to your assertion that we can

Kiss government waste in transportation goodbye.

I find your touching naïvety amusing and a little sad.

Pawlenty’s idead will pay for itself because it will diminish traffic by creating an incentive to drive at off peak times or to carpool, etc.

Dumb.

It’s a mileage tax that he’s proposing. Is my drive shorter when it’s faster? How does a tax on miles driven induce people to drive the SAME DISTANCE at non-peak times versus peak? I believe it’s 30 miles to my office at 10 am and 8am.

Smart.

Why do people think Pawlenty’s plan will save them any time in traffic?

Nobody likes sitting in traffic jams. People already regularly plan their day around rush hour traffic and work to avoid it, if at all possible.

Adding 5 or 10 cents a mile to their trip will accomplish nothing other than enriching greedy government.

RJL on March 19, 2009 at 5:10 PM

Imagine every road privately maintained, and cars that will automatically give you the cheapest/safest/fastest/most comfortable rout to your destination.
Kiss government wast in transportation goodbye.

And this is capitalistic, how?

And it matters when someone owns American infrastructure who is unfriendly to our national interests. I don’t see how that’s paranoid.

theotherKate on March 19, 2009 at 5:07 PM

The confiscation? Nothing.
It is simply the fail safe against the anti-capitalistic meddling that you are flipping out over.

But then I hate driving so as far as I’m concerned, they can put a GPS chip in my forehead as long as I save 15 minutes in traffic per day.

NoDonkey on March 19, 2009 at 4:48 PM

Why do people think Pawlenty’s plan will save them any time in traffic?

Nobody likes sitting in traffic jams. People already regularly plan their day around rush hour traffic and work to avoid it, if at all possible.

Adding 5 or 10 cents a mile to their trip will accomplish nothing other than enriching greedy government.

Why would it matter who owns the roads? If they abuse it somehow, it gets confiscated and sold off to someone else.
I guess this is where the capitalists part ways with the paranoid.

Count to 10 on March 19, 2009 at 5:04 PM

And this is capitalistic, how?

And it matters when someone owns American infrastructure who is unfriendly to our national interests. I don’t see how that’s paranoid.