Quote:
Originally Posted by bluesight
If we can get an organization to litigate this, the obvious basis is equal protection under the law for tax policy:
"Equal protection requires that classification rest on real and not feigned differences, that the distinction have some relevance to the purpose for which the classification is made, and that the different treatment be not so disparate, relative to the difference in classification, as to be wholly arbitrary."
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The usual justification behind gas taxes is road maintenance. Penalizing small, lightweight, fuel efficient vehicles as being "tax dodgers" violates that justification of the tax. Max GVW x miles driven is the ideal way to base a road maintenance tax, and gasoline used is the most practical way of collecting it. Fuel efficient vehicles aren't trying to dodge road maintenance taxes and shouldn't be levied with an "extra" tax while contributing substantially less to road deterioration than larger, less efficient vehicles.