Quote:
States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile
CORVALLIS, Ore., Feb. 14, 2005
College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas bill once topped his car payment.
"I was paying about $500 a month," says Just.
So Just bought a fuel efficient hybrid and said goodbye to his gas-guzzling BMW.
And what kind of mileage does he get?
"The EPA estimate is 60 in the city, 51 on the highway," says Just.
And that saves him almost $300 a month in gas. It's great for Just but bad for the roads he's driving on, because he also pays a lot less in gasoline taxes which fund highway projects and road repairs. As more and more hybrids hit the road, cash-strapped states are warning of rough roads ahead.
Officials in car-clogged California are so worried they may be considering a replacement for the gas tax altogether, replacing it with something called "tax by the mile."
Seeing tax dollars dwindling, neighboring Oregon has already started road testing the idea.
"Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and it's as simple as that," says engineer David Kim.
Kim and his team at Oregon State University equipped a test car with a global positioning device to keep track of its mileage. Eventually, every car would need one.
"So, if you drive 10 miles you will pay a certain fee which will be, let's say, one tenth of what someone pays if they drive 100 miles," says Kim.
The new tax would be charged each time you fill up. A computer inside the gas pump would communicate with your car's odometer to calculate how much you owe.
The system could also track how often you drive during rush hour and charge higher fees to discourage peak use. That's an idea that could break the bottleneck on California's freeways.
"We're getting a lot of interest from other states," says Jim Whitty of the Oregon Department of Transportation. "They're watching what we're doing.
"Transportation officials across the country are concerned about what's going to happen with the gas tax revenues."
Privacy advocates say it's more like big brother riding on your bumper, not to mention a disincentive to buy fuel-efficient cars.
"It's not fair for people like me who have to commute, and we don't have any choice but take the freeways," says Just. "We shouldn't have to be taxed."
But tax-by-mile advocates say it may be the only way to ensure that fuel efficiency doesn't prevent smooth sailing down the road
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Thanks jerks
This proposal, in addition to eradicating much of our privacy rights, also wipes out current monetary incentives for purchasing environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles, and invites a problem of fraud not present with the current gas pump meters.
Before anyone starts ranting about the man invading our privacy with GPS "tracking" devices...It's not likely that they mean that each car will be fitted with an antenna powerful enough to broadcast to a satellite. It's more probable that the plan is to include a GPS device in every car, which can determine distance travelled using the GPS satellites, then broadcast a report (probably by data over a cell phone call) to the taxing authority. It's a common misconception that GPS satellites can track anyone - all they do is broadcast their position, and your GPS device figures out where it is by the angle of the satellites. The GPS device doesn't tell the satellites anything, though, any more than your car radio reports back to the radio station.
The simple solution is a VAT tax...paid on everything, similar to EUropean VAT. Then we could do away with the IRS, more easily fund infrstructure, and you pay as you go. What you buy, etc...everyone pays their equitable share, both in the payroll and purchases.
I know this could easily turn bitterly politcal...but let's try not to let it.
02-16-2005, 09:38 AM
Good one hybrids...stupids.
) and would lessen the red tape concerning the IRS. also there wouldnt be wasted tax money on the personnel of the IRS.
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