Officials propose per-mile tax for gas sippers

[niky]

Make it on a logarithmic scale, too.

[radioranger]

got to give an exemption for going to work, Etc, I have a 130 mile round trip,

[tjts1]

Considering how heavy EVs are (4700LB for the Tesla, 3800LB for the Volt) an additional tax makes sense but the tax should be scaled based on vehicle weight. A flat tax doesn't work.

[radioranger]

believe me eventually they re going to tax everything per mile, logic doesn't enter into it , all cars big and small , maybe trucks more , just so they can get it passed. feeding the beast , I'm mostly very upset they might put black boxes in our car, big brother plus 1 , course government vehicles will be exempt, maybe not, could be our way out. uh Ohh they are at the door now, ! only one way out ,

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by radioranger

got to give an exemption for going to work, Etc, I have a 130 mile round trip,

Commuting mileage doesn't hurt the road as much as... some other kind of mileage? I don't like it.

[nemo]

Originally Posted by radioranger

believe me eventually they re going to tax everything per mile, logic doesn't enter into it , all cars big and small , maybe trucks more , just so they can get it passed. feeding the beast , I'm mostly very upset they might put black boxes in our car, big brother plus 1 , course government vehicles will be exempt, maybe not, could be our way out.

Black boxes are here now and the government it's the only on who wants to know. Take a look at OnStar. GPS tracking in cell phones so you can found in an emergency, and the list goes on. Bad or good all depends on how it is used.

uh Ohh they are at the door now, ! only one way out ,

It's the ones you don't hear you need to worry about.

[razor02097]

Any new tax is BS.. Vehicle registration is a 100% tax. Every time a vehicle is sold it results in sales tax paid by the new owner... (reoccurring tax?!). In the grand scheme (or scam) of things fuel excise tax isn't that much for them... why are they so worried about fuel efficient vehicles paying a tiny bit less tax? Like trying to squeeze blood out of a stone.

[redneck]

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More...


New pay-per-mile scheme would boost taxes 250 percent | WashingtonExaminer.com




New pay-per-mile scheme would boost taxes 250 percent


January 14, 2013 | 2:15 pm

Paul Bedard

An on-again, off-again move by the Obama administration to scrap the federal gas tax in favor of a pay-per-mile fee would boost the tab to Americans as high as 250 percent, raising their current tax of 18.4 cents a gallon to as high as 46 cents, according to a new government study.

But without a tax increase, said the Government Accountability Office study, the government's highway fund is going to go dry. One reason the fund is going broke: President Obama's push for fuel efficient cars has resulted in better mileage, and fewer stops at the pump.

The GAO study is just the latest review of federal spending that paints a grim picture of the nation's infrastructure. Just keeping spending at current levels, the GAO said, would require a near doubling of the gas tax to 32 cents a gallon, and that would jump to as high as 46 cents should the federal government add spending to fix crumbling infrastructure and build new roads.

The average driver pays about $96 a year in federal gas taxes, said GAO. Should the administration seek to raise the highway trust fund from $34 billion to the $78 billion needed to fix and maintain roads, that could rise to $248. Translated into a pay-per-mile plan, drivers would face a tax of 2.2 cents per mile compared to the 0.9 cents they pay now. Trucks would pay far more.

"We modeled the average mileage fee rates that would be needed for passenger vehicles and commercial trucks to meet three illustrative Highway Trust Fund revenue targets ranging from about $34 billion to $78.4 billion per year. To meet these targets, a driver of a passenger vehicle with average fuel efficiency would pay from $108 to $248 per year in mileage fees compared to the $96 they currently pay annually in federal gasoline tax," said GAO.

The administration floated that plan in the first term, but scrapped it when it was met with public outrage. However, several states and some in Congress are now eyeing the plan, keeping it alive as a federal option.

If they go thru with this, will they tax you on roads (toll) owned by private corporations domestic and foreign also...???

Get ready to dig deep. Not just on your fuel purchases and travel, but on all purchases if this goes thru.

>

[TheEnemy]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

I agree - there should be a tax per pound on all vehicles that use the roads.

I could go for that... the heaviest one we own is a Honda Accord at 3500lbs, next heaviest is a Nissan Frontier at 3200. The two lightest are the toys with the Jeep at 3000, and a 66 Mustang at about 2800lbs. But even if they go on a per mile tax our total combined over the past 5 years has been less than 10,000 miles.

[niky]

Should go with Gordon Murray's proposed momentum limit (instead of speed limit). The heavier you are, the lower your speed limit.

Originally Posted by redneck

If they go thru with this, will they tax you on roads (toll) owned by private corporations domestic and foreign also...???

They shouldn't, because the toll roads are not the property/responsibility of the state.

Which is why simple odometers won't work. You need an in-car transponder to tell them where you drove those miles. Though the accuracy of common lightweight GPS devices is not very good, so you might be taxed for driving on the highway next to your plot of land every time you move the car around the garage.

Privacy concerns are easily covered by having the system only report distances driven on national roads and not which specific roads they were driven on.