Obama floats plan to tax cars by the mile

The Hill ^

[Sub-Driver]

Obama floats plan to tax cars by the mile By Pete Kasperowicz - 05/05/11 07:45 AM ET

The Obama administration has floated a transportation authorization bill that would require the study and implementation of a plan to tax automobile drivers based on how many miles they drive.

The plan is a part of the administration's "Transportation Opportunities Act," an undated draft of which was obtained this week by Transportation Weekly.

This follows a March Congressional Budget Office report that supported the idea of taxing drivers based on miles driven.

Among other things, CBO suggested that a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax could be tracked by installing electronic equipment on each car to determine how many miles were driven; payment could take place electronically at filling stations.

The CBO report was requested by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND), who has proposed taxing cars by the mile as a way to increase federal highway revenues.

Obama's proposal seems to follow up on that idea in section 2218 of the draft bill. That section would create, within the Federal Highway Administration, a Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office. It would be tasked with creating a "study framework that defines the functionality of a mileage-based user fee system and other systems."

The administration seems to be aware of the need to prepare the public for what would likely be a controversial change to the way highway funds are collected. For example, the office is called on to serve a public relations function, as the draft says it should "increase public awareness regarding the need for an alternative funding source for surface transportation programs and provide information on possible approaches."

The draft bill says the "study framework" for the project and a public awareness communications plan should be established within two years of creating the office, and that field tests should begin within four years.

The office would be required to consider four factors in field trials: the capability of states to enforce payment, the reliability of technology, administrative costs, and "user acceptance." The draft does not specify where field trials should begin.

The new office would be funded a total of $200 million through FY 2017 for the project.

[RobRoy]

>>The administration seems to be aware of the need to prepare the public for what would likely be a controversial change to the way highway funds are collected.<<

I remember back in the early 70’s we’d here about some bone-headed law someone wanted to pass and folks would tell me “People will never stand for that!” I told them that is not true, but can be modified to be true as follows: THIS GENERATION will never stand for that.

Does anybody here think that our founding fathers would stand for most of the laws “this generation” stands for? Problem is, as us boomers get older, we are not going away like previous generations. We live too long. I honestly think they would like us to just die off so they could get to the business of making this a “complete” nanny state.

[cynwoody]

What they will "need" is a common OTS FM GPS Reporting device.

The sort of opportunity the development of such gear represents is an example of why those filthy capitalist hi-tech entrepreneurs contribute so much money to the 'Rat Party.

Capitalism is good. Crony capitalists are evil!

[Abathar]

"The ulterior motive? To kill suburbia, reverse the flow of populations away from the inner city, so that we can all live downtown and ride the gubmint trains."

Exactly true. This is so simple to figure out his ulterior motives here, Urban folks use a tank of gas by driving far less than rural drivers do.

Sitting in city traffic the mileage of most cars suck, long waits to go 10 blocks, etc... I can drive in 5 minutes the same amount of miles that many city drivers do in an hour, yet they use up far more gas and he wants to hit US for higher taxes while they will not see nearly as much increase. Oh yeah, funny coincidence, look at the map and tell me which voters will be paying more in taxes by distance, and who will not -

[Drill Thrawl]

That's exactly what they want, once a civil uprising starts, they can take complete control of us with martial law. I believe it's not far away, Zero just keeps pushing & pushing & it will happen & then they will be happy!

Bingo! I've been saying this for a couple of years now.

But then they will be very sad as they will lose badly. As a bonus they get the opportunity to directly ask OBL what exactly happened on 5/1.

[skinkinthegrass]

its the same principle...make it cost prohibitive thru 'fees' to register and get yer plates, and effectively herd you into the system...
the 'law' and thumb twisting at all levels of gubmint are a matter of their wildest imaginations at this point...

Yhea.....we're being corralled, sorted, taxed (controlled) and "processed".
...in AmeriKa formerly, Land of the Free & Brave"
....just like in the (Worker's Paradise) North Korea /
Cuba and (Old Soviet) East Germany.
....the re-educational process proceeding as planned.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

“Let’s tax how much toilet paper one uses.”

That is one smashing idea.

1. Save the used toilet papers by placing them in Ziplocs.

2. Address the Ziplocs to the IRS. Next time one is near a post office, mail the bags to the IRS, and ask them how much you owe in taxes.

[reed13]

Man - that’s going to be a lot of bicycle trips to fill up my lawn mower....

[Drill Thrawl]

We live too long. I honestly think they would like us to just die off so they could get to the business of making this a “complete” nanny state.

That's why we now have ObamaCare.

[SkyPilot]

I don't care either way. I got a limo for me and my momma! Time to get my funk on! Vacation!

[Gilbo_3]

a myriad of timers and sensors/inputs are built into the software of anything post 1998...coould make for some interesting use of hacker ingenuity to defeat the systems, although most people will simply submit to keep their driving ‘priveledge’...

[Alberta's Child]

We are already taxed by the mile. That’s what a tax per gallon does — taxes per mile driven.

No, we are not. We are taxed by fuel consumption -- but only for certain fuels. There is a rough correlation between fuel consumption and miles driven, but it's not a direct relationship.

If Vehicle A is twice as fuel efficient as Vehicle B and they are driven the exact same number of miles, then the driver of Vehicle A will pay have as much in fuel taxes as the driver of Vehicle B -- regardless of how much these vehicles actually contribute to the capital and maintenance needs of the highway system.

There's an underlying motivation behind this discussion, and it's not all about tracking people, taxing them more, and all of that. What's happening here is that the nation's highway system is starting to be examined along the lines of a "public utility" business model, and not a "public space" business model. There is an enormous difference between these two, and this change in thinking is not a bad thing even if the means of collecting taxes may not be a good thing.

First and foremost, it is important for elected leaders and the general public to stop thinking about a road as if it were something that just gets built and then left alone until it falls apart. Instead, it needs to be viewed as an asset that has maintenance costs and long-term rehabilitation costs associated with it . . . and considerations for those costs need to be made when a road is built in the first place.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

“If they tax our mileage then tax us on how much toilet paper we use then I suggest we all start planting corn! Be a redneck society using corncobs instead of tp.”

The Cuna Indians here in Panama use newspapers.

I don’t blame them.

[JudyinCanada]

I hope he starts promoting it right away. I also hope talk radio and Fox start on about it. This should take care of him and his “bump”.

[Drill Thrawl]

Dikes will be taxed heavily and then banned. Oh and “cutting the wire” will be a federal felony with long prison terms and stiff fines. The pumps will also be wired to not allow dispensing without a positive RFID read. So they also get fees for RFID tags for your gas can.

[Red in Blue PA]

And I can only presume that people who use subsudized trains and subways will pay intot his too, right?

Yet another tax on the producers which the mon producers get away with paying zero.

[Gilbo_3]

at least make used ones exorbitantly expensive.

thats my guess...the tax/registration can be manipulated at will...dont like it, then you dont get tags, period...

what say you, spktyr, on the viability of usin the existing OBD systems to simply plugin the car at each fillup ??? and the difficulty in overriding/fooling the data...???

[Red in Blue PA]

Wonderful idea. I hope Obama makes this the centerpiece of his re-election campaign.

Even if he doesn't, the mere fact that this is being discussed needs to be an RNC ad.

[dawn53]

Sounds like we’re becoming “European.” We watch the British version of Top Gear, and were listening to a rerun the other day from 2007. It was one of their awards show. I got a kick out of what the British think of their “taxes” having to do with cars and transportation. The description of the taxes they pay, associated with cars/driving/fuel starts at :46 in the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWZaePvABRY

P.S. Ken Livingstone was the mayor of London at the time.

[Red in Blue PA]

That is one smashing idea. 1. Save the used toilet papers by placing them in Ziplocs. 2. Address the Ziplocs to the IRS. Next time one is near a post office, mail the bags to the IRS, and ask them how much you owe in taxes.

How much you want to bet that anyone who did that would be charged withg terroristic threats of a WMD?

Orwellian.

[sheik yerbouty]

These scumbags are sidewalk commandos who do not pay for their own rides...