Charlotte man converts car to veggie oil, gets fined by state_(heh tax boy)

ap ^ | 6/8/07 | ap

[Savage Beast]

If I’m not mistaken, North Carolina people have a long history of hating revenuers.

[TKDietz]

It’s cheaper than gasoline where I live now, and has been for a few months. It’s probably that way where you live too now. And diesel vehicles get a lot better gas mileage. So even when it costs more it may still be a better deal than gasoline, depending on how much more it costs.

[TKDietz]

“This guy is a deadbeat by trying to avoid paying for a service he actually uses.”

Was he trying to avoid paying taxes or was he taking “a stand against US dependence on foreign oil,” “thumbing [his] nose at oil sheiks,” like it says in the article? You’re a deadbeat if you want to try to do a little something to reduce our dependence on Arab oil?

[ChildOfThe60s]

Except that fuel taxes actually pay for the roads that people use.

Snicker. All of the money the government collects goes into the same pot and is then spent on various things. Targeted taxes are a shell game. As are so called user fees when collected by the government.

My wife's job pays the mortgage & mine pays the taxes and insurance? Not hardly. It all goes into the same place and then dispensed as desired.

Pay a tax on fuel you make yourself? How paying taxes on the food you grow [for your own use] in your own garden?

The only thing this is about is government's insatiable need for revenue.

[Tinian]

"I 've go a car that burns french fry grease, tears up the
roads like the rest of 'em, and I don't pay a single
penny for road maintenance. W00t! -- I'm a hero!

[timer]

So much for “freedom from foreign oil”, you knew it was a scam all along, right? Fuel taxes are the sacred cash cow of state and fed gov’ts. As to going for highway construction and maintenance, another scam, most of it slips thru the cracks : special interest groups and rich lawyers pockets. As they said in watergate : follow the money...

[IncPen]

This reminds me of the looney legislator in our home state who wanted to tax higher mileage cars because they used less gas and therefore didn’t pay their ‘fair share’

[org.whodat]

Shoulda kept his mouth shut. This guy now his bad deal (expensive conversion, overpriced fuel) is really screwed.

The cops regularly check the fuel in diesels, if anything in the tank is not the correct color, you get the big fine. They do it to keep farmers and contractors from running off road fuel on the road. A farmer can run off road diesel on untagged, farm use vehicles.

[llevrok]

Like my state who raised taxes to get us in more fuel effecient cars.

Now that we did that, the tax rev is down and they consider a tax hike to make up for the fewer gallons sold.

[Army Air Corps]

I imagine that he still pays tolls and vehicle license fees, inspection fees, etc. Shame on him for not paying one voluntary tax (no one HAS to buy petrol if they do not wish to). So, will the tax thugs shakedown the drivers of electric cars?

[Tinian]

Okay. Cyclists use the roads too. Why aren’t bicycle riders also charged a tax. Deadbeats.

Maybe because they don't damage the road like a 5,000 lb. car or a 40,000 lb. truck?

Just a thought.

[Flavius]

there is a reason why mathematicians and engineers don’t go into politics

they can actually add numbers not just feel about it

[Army Air Corps]

Must be a crappy raod that cannot bear use by a 5,000lb car. Also, the State still gets other revenues from this guy even if he is not using petrol or diesel from the pump. Between road tolls, inspections fees, licensing fees, etc. the state still gets money. Will the state also fine someone who dares to drive an electric car?

[omnivore]

... the state and federal governments are trying to encourage alternative fuels usage.

I appreciate the idea and wish they were, but not yet, they're not.

When the states and feds actually do get around to "encouraging alternative fuels usage," we'll know it, because the first thing they'll do on that happy day is reduce the tax on biofuels compared to fossil (or mineral anyway, don't mean to get wrapped up in that whole thing) fuels.

How about a road tax formula based on vehicle weight and miles driven? Ignore the fuel completely. Or roll a road fee into the sticker price of new vehicles based on weight and 150,000 miles estimated life (quibble over the number). The point is, there has never been a good reason to put road taxes on the fuel rather than the vehicles, the annual registration, or some other method of collection, other than a couple possibilities.

One would be utter lazyness on the part of government, to blow it off on the gas companies to collect the road tax. The other would be for government to put the road tax on the fuel companies, to make it seem more like a tax paid on the fuel, rather than a tax paid for the road.

After all, if people were reminded too freqently that they were PAYING for the road, they might eventually come to the conclusion that they do indeed OWN the road which they have paid for. And it's harder for People In Government to pass cretinous laws and regulations on things that people have a rightful claim to own, than on things the people are convinced they don't own, or that some nebulous "public" (read "collective," comrade) might in some lame sense own, but which of course needs to be ruled by pinheads in government. Not impossible, they do it anyway, just harder.

[Tinian]

So, will the tax thugs shakedown the drivers of electric cars?

I hope so. I don't want to (literally) pay their way. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

[Red Badger]

Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished....... If you want on or off the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me........ This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days......

[Army Air Corps]

They aren’t driving for free either. They still have to get the vehicle inspected ($$$$), get it licensed ($$$), pay license renewal fees ($$$$), and so on. All that cash goes into the same till for the state to use or misuse. Shock and surprise, that cash will also go to road maintenance.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> This reminds me of the looney legislator in our home state who wanted to tax higher mileage cars because they used less gas and therefore didn’t pay their ‘fair share’

There is a perverse logic to the loony legislator’s proposition, and after a couple of beers I’m sure I could see things his way...

And bicycles? Don’t get me started on bicycles! They free-load off The System, just like cats and cat-owners free-load by not being licensed.

And both tend to get preachy and hi-and-mighty over issues affecting them, but for which they shall never have to pay!

Nasty motorless contraptions! Mangy flea-bitten unintelligent untrainable varmints! Pah!

[Buddy B]

And diesel vehicles get a lot better gas mileage.

Interesting...And diesel vehicles get a lot better gas mileage.

[Disambiguator]

The terms “gas mileage” and “fuel economy” can be used interchangeably.