CBO: Taxing mileage a 'practical option' for revenue enhancement

[Newsjock]

Source: The Hill

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week released a report that said taxing people based on how many miles they drive is a possible option for raising new revenues and that these taxes could be used to offset the costs of highway maintenance at a time when federal funds are short.

The report discussed the proposal in great detail, including the development of technology that would allow total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to be tracked, reported and taxed, as well as the pros and cons of mandating the installation of this technology in all vehicles.

"In the past, the efficiency costs of implementing a system of VMT charges — particularly the costs of users' time for slowing and queuing at tollbooths — would clearly have outweighed the potential benefits from more efficient use of highway capacity," CBO wrote. "Now, electronic metering and billing are making per-mile charges a practical option."

The report was requested by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who held a hearing on transportation funding in early March. In that hearing, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the Obama administration is hoping to spend $556 billion over the next six years, much of which would go to federal transportation improvement projects.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/151765-cbo-says-taxing-drivers-based-on-miles-driven-a-real-option-for-raising-revenues

[Initech]

1. Um fuck that.

I'm a courier - I make what little extra I can off the mileage I drive. They start taxing that I'm fucked. Why dont they make GE pay the billions they owe on back taxes instead? :mad: :grr:

[Sherman A1]

2. They can take this idea and go straight to hell with it.

Get us off of carbon based fuels and the issue becomes a moot one. We reduce our need for military entanglements (saving huge money), we reduce the health effects of the use of carbon based fuels (saving money & perhaps a life or two) and on and on and on......

[jmowreader]

16. You still need roads, Sherman

Changing to electric cars means you need a mileage-based tax system very much.

[Sherman A1]

21. I don't dispute you need roads, however

the method should be something beyond a use taxation method. We all "need" national defense yet, we all collectively contribute to it not on a use tax basis.

[notadmblnd]

3. Don;t we alread pay taxes on the miles we drive every time we buy gas?

seems to me I'm paying gasoline taxes and I was under the impression that is one of the ways we pay for our roads?:shrug:

[damntexdem]

9. Actually, what we do now is more rational than this proposal:

effectively, gallons used are taxed, not miles driven.

[kelly1mm]

20. What gas taxes do electric car drivers pay? Although the wear and tear

on the roads is minimal now, if a larger percentage of total vehicle miles driven come from electric cars (generally a good thing) at some point it would be good to examine where the road funds will come from. Say at some point in the future, 1/2 of all vehicle miles driven in the US are driven in electric cars. The taxes raised from the gas excise tax that mainly funds the transportation infrastructure (including mass transit by the way) of the US would be severely impacted.

[Angry Dragon]

4. I thought that was what gas taxes were for......

another regressive tax on the bottom

[gratuitous]

5. Raise the federal gasoline tax

It's still at the same per-gallon level it was in 1993. A 50% bump in the tax would add less than $1.10 to the price of a 12 gallon fill-up. With the recent increase in gas prices, who would notice such a thing? Also, a tax based on gasoline consumption rewards fuel efficient (and lower emissions) vehicles, and provides an incentive for fleet owners to replace aging, low-mileage vehicles with higher mileage vehicles.

[Blue Meany]

6. What would make sense is to start taxing trucks at a rate that

refelects their actual wear and tear on the roads, which is on average several times what they actually pay. This would, then, result in increased use of rail, which is much more energy efficient.

[jmowreader]

17. Diesel is taxed that way now

Which is why people with diesel cars are paying a grossly disproportionate share of their tax burden.

[DiverDave]

23. Sure, raise the tax on diesel

and it gets passed right to you.

Seen the cost of groceries lately?

I agree that trucks damage roads more, but the roads are crap in the 1st place.
We can make a road that will take a 150,000 pound load and last 50 years, it just costs alot.

Governments using the lowest bid get what they pay for.

A cheap road lasts a short time.

I wouldnt care if my tax dollars went to QUALITY construction, but they have to say "look at how CHEAP I got this road/hiway built"

Back on point, I saw 4.45 a gallon in NY last week...
What would people do if GAS was that high?

It used to be that diesel was 1/2 what gas was, no more.

[damntexdem]

7. So someone getting 40 MPG is taxed the same as one getting 12 MPG ...

when the same number of miles are driven?

[Sherman A1]

22. Apparently so in this plan

if they want it to be a use tax, mpg needs to be considered.

[indepat]

8. No tax scheme ever seems to float out of Washington that is not regressive to the

hilt and no tax scheme out of Washington ever seems to ask the uber-affluent to bear a proportionate share of the tax burden. Willie Sutton, was it, robbed banks because that's where the money is. Getting taxes from those who have almost all the money would seem a rational and logical approach, but such an approach has been heresy in the post-gipper era. :patriot:

Edited for context

[inna]

10. more regressive taxation. fuckers.

[movonne]

11. Tax the corporations, millionaires, billionaires and leave us alone..we

pay enough...

[Rage for Order]

12. Why not add a $1 surcharge to every stock exchange transaction instead?

Buy 1,000 shares of Apple? $1 surcharge. Sell 100 shares of Exxon? $1 surcharge. I wonder how quickly that would add up?

[The Second Stone]

13. End or reduce mileage deductions for vehicles

Don't add yet another layer of complexity to our tax system. The Republicans floated this in California a few years back because they thought hybrids were taking unfair advantage of the roads compared to SUVs because they paid so much less in gas taxes. Not understanding that an SUV tears up the road much more than a Prius.

It's just their way of trying to shift taxes from idiot Republican Hummer drivers to liberals who drive a Prius.

[jeff47]

14. Yes it's workable....but it's still dumb

Just increase gasoline taxes. Raises more revenue, and favors fuel efficiency.

[Dawson Leery]

15. These days, the tax increases are regressive.

:argh:

[fishwax]

18. yay! regressive tax schemes!

:eyes:

[MikeW]

19. good luck with that I'll rip the tracker right out and smash it

[WinkyDink]

24. OMG, this is so completely insane. Maybe NOW Suburbia will wake up. And the Tourism Industry.