National Boards > General Highway Talk
What creative ideas to get into our pockets...AGAIN
Tarkus:
Oregon's been milling around with the "mileage tax" idea (or as it's officially called "road user fee") for a few years now, and quite frankly, it's just about the stupidest and scariest tax I've ever heard of. Our governor is particularly keen on it, too. It also gives people who drive Stretch Hummer Limos a tax advantage over people who drive Priuses--that's just not right.
It's totally something out of Orwell's 1984. ODOT has insisted that there will be no way of tracking anyone, but the fact of the matter is, your location is being beamed into outer space with those GPS devices on there. (Also a good reason not to buy a GPS navigation system, imo.) I don't buy that for a minute.
I actually looked over a bunch of their technical documentation on it awhile ago, and there is apparently a "cutoff switch" on the device, and any car which doesn't have a functioning GPS tracker reverts to paying the old gas tax.
What would probably end up happening is that there would be a burgeoning "gray market" industry of auto mechanics and car stereo installer-types who will disable State GPS Mileage Tax devices for a price. The people who drive fuel-efficient cars will end up having the devices disabled, and the people who drive giant SUVs will leave them in, and the end result would be even less money for roads. All you'd end up with is a taxpayer-funded windfall for GPS manufacturers.
-Alex (Tarkus)
wandering drive:
I don't understand how a mileage tax is any different than increasing the gas tax, except that it's more expensive to implement and treats all vehicles equally. And it's nearly impossible to circumvent a gas tax.
I sure hope this idea isn't being taken seriously.
Scott5114:
The mileage tax is simply the concept of a toll road turned into something infinitely more stupid.
Revive 755:
I'm kind of curious on the real advantages on a mileage tax over more toll roads, including tolling currently free roads. The only one I can think of is it charges for driving on every road, not just major interstates and expressways, but it seems there could be a way to toll non-controlled access facilities using transponders.
Scott5114:
--- Quote from: Revive 755 on February 22, 2009, 12:03:00 AM ---I'm kind of curious on the real advantages on a mileage tax over more toll roads, including tolling currently free roads. The only one I can think of is it charges for driving on every road, not just major interstates and expressways, but it seems there could be a way to toll non-controlled access facilities using transponders.
--- End quote ---
Well, you could have the "congestion charge" like London has, where you get billed to enter very congested areas.
Or you could place toll cameras at random points to bill people. Problem there is the way most American cities are laid out, it would be simple to learn where the cameras are and circumvent them (potentially dumping lots of traffic on residential streets so they can avoid the cameras).
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