Liberals Drool At The Idea of Charging People A Tax For Every Single Mile They Drive

[Obama 2012 1,714]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/18/travel/pay-per-mile-transportation/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

Will pay-per-mile be a buzzkill for American road trips?

(CNN) -- Remember your first road trip? That sweet taste of independence as you were finally unleashed on America's free and open highways?

For Pulitzer-winning automotive columnist Dan Neil, it was the day he turned 16 and passed his driving test.

"The minute I got my drivers license out of the laminator, I was on the road," he recalled. "I took the longest road trip I could take."

Neil pointed his Fiat 124 Spider convertible in the direction of the nearest city: Raleigh, North Carolina.

"I just had to go man, I just had to drive. I must have put 500 miles on that car that day."

Neil said he was part of a mindset that associated the automobile with freedom, mobility and self-determination.

Then the excitement in Neil's voice disappeared. "That was in the mid-1970s, and the road system was a little bit different then."

Indeed it was. The days of America's "free" and open roads are gone -- or perhaps they never existed at all.

Drivers often forget that they pay for highway construction and maintenance through federal fuel taxes: 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel. "The notion that the road has ever been free is sort of a self-delusion," said Neil.

But the fuel tax is running out of steam, experts warn, because more efficient vehicles are using less fuel and rising fuel prices discourage driving. As tax revenue falls, so does the nation's ability to pay for road construction and maintenance.

The solution, say many transportation experts, is to replace -- or supplement -- fuel taxes with a per-mile tax on every vehicle in America.

Tax authorities might monitor each vehicle's mileage by installing devices that would transmit data.

Unlike a fuel tax, which is somewhat hidden in the price of fuel, a device that spends your money with each tick of the odometer would be a real buzz-kill for millions of road tripping Americans.

"It's just like a speed limit or a toll road or any other kind of interference," said Neil. "It steps on that conception we have of ourselves as a people without borders or boundaries. You step on our ability to take to the open road."

The bottom line

So, what kind of money are we talking about here?

Translated into dollars and cents, fuel taxes cost each vehicle owner about $250 a year on average. According to a University of Iowa study, paying that amount on a per-mile basis would come to about 1.6 cents per mile.

Whether it is paid for through fuel taxes or taxing per-mile, it's clear the federal highway fund is in trouble.

By the end of 2012, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the fund will "be unable to meet its obligations in a timely manner" unless Congress injects even more life support from the general Treasury.

During the next 20 years, projections show average vehicle fuel efficiency nearly doubling.

Revenues from the fuel tax will be slashed by half, according to the Iowa study.

Meanwhile, the cost of safe roads, bridges and transit systems will skyrocket. By 2020, says the American Society of Engineers, the price tag could be as high as $1.7 trillion.

Bottom line: two cents per mile would be enough to pay for the nation's transportation infrastructure needs. That's according to a 2009 nonpartisan commission headed by two former U.S. transportation secretaries.

'The Man,' with a capital M

Imagine 254 million vehicles.

That's the number of cars, trucks and motorcycles that a tax per mile system would have to monitor.

Some proposals call for using GPS satellites to gather mileage data on each vehicle.

Whoa. Really?

When it comes to tracking their vehicles, Americans tend to be really touchy about protecting their privacy.

According to a University of Iowa poll, only about 20% of drivers would choose a pay-per-mile tax system if GPS tracking is involved.

The anonymous driver will soon be an extinct species, says Neil.

"You can't drop off the grid. Ten years from now, it will be virtually impossible to drive a car that doesn't have an electronic signature," said Neil.

"It doesn't matter whether you have OnStar or you rent a car -- it's going to have a 'black box.' If you've got any kind of navigation, The Man -- with a capital M -- knows where you are."

University of Iowa research shows that the public would be more willing to accept per-mile taxes if its monitoring technology doesn't record a vehicle's specific location.

Taking your vehicle to have someone read the odometer every year -- like some states do with emissions testing -- might be an option.

But some experts fear that method might be too expensive. Also, the resulting once-a-year tax bill might be too much for some drivers to pay.

One idea tested in Minnesota eliminates GPS and uses cell phone text messaging technology.

During fuel stops at gas stations, a device that already exists in most cars would text the car's mileage information to a "back office" data base.

The office would then adjust the price of fuel at the pump based on each vehicle's mileage driven.

Implementing any system would be tricky, says Paul Hanley, who headed the Iowa study. Retrofitting existing cars with the required technology would be almost impossible, he says.

The cheapest and least difficult option says Hanely, would be to install devices in new cars and slowly transition to the new system as the nation's entire fleet of vehicles turns over.

It takes about eight years before 90% of our vehicles are turned over, Hanley says, and more than 10 years to convert the fleet to nearly 100%.

"It's inevitable," says Hanley, who's been conducting a real-world test of a pay-per-mile system with more than 2,500 drivers in 12 locations from coast-to-coast. Per-mile taxes "with a combination of tolls is coming as we move away from the fuel tax."

Several states in addition to Iowa and Minnesota are looking into possible pay-per-mile tax systems, including Oregon and Texas.

Don't bother, some argue

Leave well-enough alone, says the American Trucking Associations' Darrin Roth, who argues that taxing vehicles per mile is too expensive to implement and administer.

Those costs would be passed on to consumers, Roth says.

The best and least complicated solution is to raise the fuel tax, which hasn't changed since 1993. But that idea comes with its own set of political challenges. Many members of Congress would likely oppose any kind of tax hike.

"I'm not convinced per-mile taxes are going to happen," says Roth. "If it does, it probably won't happen for a long time."

Despite all the changes technology may bring to the driving experience, "the American road will still be out there," says Neil.

"It's fun and it's incredibly broadening for people ... and it's a great way to spend time with your family," he says. "It might not be as innocent as it used to be, but it's still an important part of who we are as a people."

How to pay for that highway remains a question Americans will debate for a while -- perhaps for years down the road.

[Pooky 3,784]

Why make it difficult?

Add a small tax on gas. That way you pay per mile, you incentivise the American auto industry to increase fuel efficiency (so that SUV owners don't feel persecuted), and you make SMART car owners feel safer by reducing the overall weight of metal on the road (as more consumers buy smaller to save money).

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States

Taxes on gasoline and diesel for transportation by U.S. state in U.S. cents per gallon as of July 2009[3]

US average 47.0 51.4

Alabama 39.4 46.3

Alaska 18.4 24.4

Arizona 37.4 43.4

Arkansas 40.2 47.2

California 64.5 68.9

Colorado 40.4 44.9

Connecticut 59.3 69.5

Delaware 41.4 46.4

District of Columbia 38.4 44.4

Florida 52.9 54.2

Georgia 31.4 37.3

Hawaii 62.7 70.8

Idaho 43.4 49.4

Illinois 57.2 64.4

Indiana 52.2 65.9

Iowa 40.4 47.9

Kansas 43.4 51.4

Kentucky 40.9 43.9

Louisiana 38.4 44.4

Maine 49.4 56.6

Maryland 41.9 48.7

Massachusetts 41.9 47.9

Michigan 53.1 55.1

Minnesota 45.6 51.6

Mississippi 37.2 43.2

Missouri 35.7 41.7

Montana 46.2 53.0

Nebraska 45.7 51.7

Nevada 51.5 53.0

New Hampshire 38.0 44.0

New Jersey 32.9 41.9

New Mexico 37.2 47.2

New York 63.4 67.7

North Carolina 48.6 54.6

North Dakota 41.4 47.4

Ohio 46.4 52.4

Oklahoma 35.4 38.4

Oregon 48.4 54.4

Pennsylvania 50.7 63.6

Rhode Island 51.4 57.4

South Carolina 35.2 41.2

South Dakota 42.4 48.4

Tennessee 39.8 42.8

Texas 38.4 44.4

Utah 42.9 48.9

Vermont 41.7 50.4

Virginia 37.8 43.8

Washington 55.9 61.9

West Virginia 50.6 56.5

Wisconsin 51.3 57.3

Wyoming 32.4 38.4

Edited November 19, 2011 by Why_Me

[mawilson 2,133]

Why make it difficult?

Add a small tax on gas.

They already did that and now want to replace the tax revenues lost from

decreased gasoline consumption due to widespread deployment of electric and

plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Wash. considers annual flat fee for electric cars

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

One more reason to keep driving my old clunkers, but I would do that anyway. The oldest one is from 1911, the youngest one from 1962. None of them will have a black box or tracking device at any time; big brother can suck my toe. I will never buy another car, only if one of my vehicles gets damaged in an accident in which case I will replace it with an even older one.

What could be more environmentally friendly than NOT buying new cars over and over and over again? Just say NO!

Edited November 20, 2011 by Brother Hesekiel

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

They already did that and now want to replace the tax revenues lost from

decreased gasoline consumption due to widespread deployment of electric and

plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Wash. considers annual flat fee for electric cars

Washington State is run by Christine Gregoire who has to be one of the biggest cnts alive. She can't tax and spend enough even though Washington State is going down the tubes due to over spending.

[dalegg 143]

This seems fair to me. Why should electric car owners get to drive for free on a road paid for by the rest of us? Its either this or more toll roads.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Nothing new. Vermont has been so successful at discouraging smoking that they are now down to only 11% of adults smoking in this state due to endless increases in cigarette taxes. But faced with falling revenue from cigarette sales (who knew!!???)they are now looking about for new taxes to "replace lost revenue"

Of course we were told we had the cigarette tax because smoking "cost the state" millions and trillions and gazillions of dollars and one would assume that those costs also are going away with the decline of smoking...no?

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

They already did that and now want to replace the tax revenues lost from

decreased gasoline consumption due to widespread deployment of electric and

plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Wash. considers annual flat fee for electric cars

I think pooky is suggesting a slighty higher tax on fuel. That makes more sense to me. If electric cars start to become dominate, I guess you tax electricity more instead etc.