Transportation chief eyes taxing miles driven

from JoeUser Forums

Current events in the political realm...

Transportation chief eyes taxing miles driven

LaHood's says current gasoline tax not enough to fund infrastructure

WASHINGTON - Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn — an idea that has angered drivers in some states where it has been proposed.

Interesting concept, but I'm not sure it is really a great idea.

I find it interesting from the point of view that it's probably not a bad idea to be encouraging people to try to drive fewer miles, but at the same time this would be punitive of people that have already been forced, likely due to how expensive housing and other cost of living factors are the cities that they are commuting to, to live outside the areas they might otherwise live closer to.

I like the idea of getting people to drive less, but on the other hand if you tax on miles driven rather than fuel used, there's really no incentive to upgrade to more fuel efficient vehicles.

Perhaps a combination of both of these types of tax systems would be the best, but then it still leaves issues with the burden of having to track how many miles are driven in a year and doing that in a way that doesn't allow cheating and under-reporting of those miles.

It's interesting to see some 'outside the box' thinking here, but I think perhaps this one should go back to the drawing board...

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4,122 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top

That's a terrible idea!  What's the point?  Someone can have a very fuel efficient car, drive twice as far as some big road tank and burn less gas.  Why would the person who has to commute further but has a more efficient vehicle have to pay more?  It makes no sense.  Why penalize people for having to live farther away from work?  They already have road rage, don't push them over the edge! ;)

Reply #2 from PolMach Forums Top

It would be a pointless change that wouldn't do much but add all sorts of new bureaucracy and paperwork (How many miles did you drive this year? Prove it or get audited!).

People already pay for how much they drive by how much gas they use; the current system even has the advantage that heavier vehicles (which cause more damage to asphalt road surfaces) generally use more gas so those people pay more per mile to keep the roads up.

Linking it to fuel consumption as it is now is about the best way it can be done, since it's completely hands-off. No paperwork, no bureaucrats, no checking and calculating what you'll owe down the road. You just pay as you go, as you use the roads, and there's no way to over or under-pay.

 

I like the idea of getting people to drive less, but on the other hand if you tax on miles driven rather than fuel used, there's really no incentive to upgrade to more fuel efficient vehicles.
End of quote

That too, though I'm sure they'll come looking for a new source of taxes once gas consumption drops in any significant way. But this idea is about the worst way to do that. More likely they'd have to go to something like taxing tires, but that's still not as directly linkable to road wear as gas use.

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Isn't this the typical Democrat approach to things? It's called group punishment. Wouldn't it be better to reward people for using more fuel efficient cars rather than punish? Of course rewarding people for responsible behavior doesn't give them a source of revenue that they can tap into for use on their other entitlement programs. They know what's best for your money, not you.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Can anybody post here?

From my understanding of the issue, the purpose of the "miles driven" tax is to replace the revenues that will be lost when we all drive fuel efficient and hybrid, etc vehicles.  After all, money is still needed to maintain the roads.  The really scary part of this senario is that the way the govt plans to calculate our milage is to put a GPS unit in each of our cars and keep track of our whereabouts.  This is frightening!

Reply #5 from PolMach Forums Top

The really scary part of this senario is that the way the govt plans to calculate our milage is to put a GPS unit in each of our cars and keep track of our whereabouts. This is frightening!
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Even more ridiculous if that's what they're thinking. Really makes you wonder how they think that could be a good idea as opposed to just taxing tires (which share the common factor with gas in that they are worn/consumed based on how much you drive) or something similar.

Plus given how many miles tires last, it would make peeople quite keenly aware of just how much they're being taxed.

Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

More efficient to just tax fuel than miles driven, although road tolls are always another option which provide a pseudo-tax-per-miles-driven.