Obama nixes plan to tax motorists on mileage

[WillieW]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090220/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/lahood_vehicle_mileage_tax

[taterguy]

1. So you started this thread, how do you think roads should be paid for?

[bbinacan]

3. From taxes on gas.

the more you drive, the more gas you use, and the more you pay in taxes.

[taterguy]

5. Should gas taxes be how we pay for roads? How much are you willing to pay for a gallon of gas?

[bbinacan]

7. What's the difference?

Pay by the mile or pay by the tax per gallon.

[taterguy]

9. Our current system is a mixture of general revenue funds and pay per gallon

That's the difference

[bbinacan]

10. I just don't see a need

to tax by the mile. How would that even be tracked?

[taterguy]

12. Do you think general revenue funds should be used to pay for roads?

That was my question

[MADem]

13. It would invite cheating. Put a transponder in every car?

Those can be 'fucked with'....put "readers" out on the highway? That would drive people to the secondary roads.

Deval Patrick wanted to put a chip in our inspection stickers. The entire state...er...hooted at him.

You can disable those chips in passports with a smart crack of a hammer. I'm sure you could do the same thing (carefully, of course, so as not to break the windscreen) to one that was hidden inside an inspection sticker.

[Oregone]

11. Big difference for those with fuel efficient cars that do far less damage to the roads...

You would be seeing Hummers and hybrids being charged the same tax, if it were per mile, but we know the Hummer is infinitely more destructive to roads and the environment. Case closed. Per mile tax is a shitty idea.

[dflprincess]

15. The difference is that when it is a per gallon tax

those of us who drive something like a Civic pay a smaller price per mile than someone who drives a gas guzzler.

As the article notes, a per mile tax could take away some of the incentive to drive more fuel efficient cars.

[backscatter712]

6. I'm all for gas taxes.

Taxation, on top of generating .gov revenue, is used to alter behavior. The biggest problem with the mileage tax is that it hits the environmentally conscious vehicles as well as the polluters.

I'd say go for taxes on fossil-fuels, and for now at least, cut the electric and bio-fueled vehicle drivers a break. That should help encourage people to switch.

[liberal N proud]

2. It was a stupid idea

User taxes only hurt the middle class and the poor.

[Matariki]

4. In so many ways that would be a regressive tax

If I could afford to live closer to downtown where the jobs are, where my job is, I certainly would. If the bus didn't add an extra hour each way to my already long commute, I would take the bus. If I had to pay taxes on mileage, I would feel like I was being billed extra for not being wealthy enough to live closer to town.

[taterguy]

8. Are there places closer to town where the rent/mortgage would be less than what you're paying now?

I don't know your life story but I suspect there are.

They're just places you wouldn't want to live.

So you make a choice and expect someone else to pick up the tab.

[Matariki]

14. That's absurd. Clearly you don't live near a large, expensive city.

And in what way is that someone else 'picking up the tab'?

Anyway, my point wasn't my personal story, but that tax on consumer goods and 'user' taxes most heavily burdens the poor and middle classes.

[taterguy]

16. Someone else is picking up the tab because automobile usage is heavily subsidized

The article in the thread states that 8 billion dollars of general revenue funds went to roads last year.

That's only the tip of the iceberg. It doesn't count things like the cost of defense spending that exists just to insure the free flow of oil.

It's true that user fees aren't progressive but I don't know of a way to make them progressive. I'd hate to have to present my latest tax return every time I bought a tank of gas.

And of course everything is relative. People that are truly poor can't afford cars, but their tax money goes to those who can.