Posted on 01/02/2003 3:43:33 PM PST by EBUCK
State GPS Tracking Your Mileage and Your Movements
Marc Morano, CNSNews.com Thursday, Jan. 2, 2003
CNSNews.com – If a proposal by an Oregon State task force becomes law, the government would be able to use satellite equipment to keep track of each driver's mileage and tax that driver accordingly in order to pay for road repairs. Even the state administrator who proposed the plan thinks citizens "should be concerned" about the possibility of civil liberties violations. And Chris Edwards, director of fiscal policy at the free market Cato Institute told CNSNews.com , "I think it's nutty and I don't think it's ever going to happen."
"I don't think Americans are ready to be subjected to that type of civil liberties intrusion," Edwards explained, "where government tracks them around wherever they drive."
Edwards believes the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) mileage-tracking proposal is the result of overzealous government bureaucrats.
"This is an example of economists gone wild," Edwards said. "Economists often think of these schemes that seem efficient on paper, but they don't think about the real world and the civil liberties aspect of things."
Jim Whitty, administrator of Oregon's Road User Fee Task Force, in an exclusive interview with CNSNews.com , called the GPS mileage tracking tax proposal necessary because "it costs a certain amount to drive on the road per vehicle and people ought to pay their fair share of their usage."
Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber and the state legislature set up the Road User Fee Task Force in November 2001 to explore methods of financing transportation costs.
Noting that gas taxes are unfair because of the large differences in the fuel economy of automobiles, Whitty and the task force explored alternative taxing methods to ensure equity among drivers. Seventy-percent of Oregon's road maintenance revenues currently come from federal and state gas taxes.
Commission members rejected the idea of using automobile odometer readings to track mileage because they figured some people would accumulate out-of-state mileage. The idea of raising the existing gasoline tax was also turned down because with automobiles becoming so fuel efficient, gas tax revenues are projected to dry up.
"If everybody had high mileage cars, our road system would fall apart" from lack of revenue, Whitty said.
'Vehicle Miles Traveled Fee'
The solution seemed clear to Whitty.
"You go to technology and you look and say we can calculate mileage electronically, so it can be paid electronically ... That is where the GPS device came in," Whitty said.
Whitty envisions a system that would either send auto owners a monthly bill for their miles or set up gas stations so they could read the GPS transponders and collect the tax during fueling stops. The new tax per mile would be called a VMT fee or Vehicle Miles Traveled fee.
Whitty would also like to see other technologies besides GPS considered.
"There is an odometer sensor which can calculate mileage and then data can be transferred by radio frequencies to a fuel pump. We are going to be looking at both," Whitty explained.
Whitty believes that despite the fears of potential civil liberties violations, the new method of calculating road taxes is needed to make transportation taxes fairer.
"[The task force] wanted it to look like the gas tax used to look like back around 1960 when all cars virtually got the same miles per gallon," Whitty said. "What has happened though is that in the 70s, 80s and 90s, some cars became more fuel efficient and others didn't.
"There was no longer a correlation between miles driven and revenues raised," Whitty explained.
When asked about possible civil liberties violations, Whitty admitted that people should be cautious about the state's use of the mileage tracking technology.
"They should be concerned and they should watch this and make sure that is doesn't turn into such a thing," Whitty said.
However, "that is not the purpose of this fee," he added. "The state transportation department has no interest in knowing where people are going either currently or after the fact."
Whitty believes police may ultimately end up using the GPS data for criminal investigations.
"If there was a police necessity perhaps, but we are not looking at that. That is not our concern," he said.
Edwards remains unconvinced.
"You can say it's not the purpose, but later on it will be abused and expanded," Edwards said.
"We don't need the government to have Big Brother precise tracking systems to make sure the highways are precisely paid by precisely the right people who use them," Edwards continued. "The gas tax now is roughly efficient."
Edwards also dismissed Whitty's concerns about dwindling revenues from gas taxes.
"The private sector is doing more with less. I don't see why the government sector also cannot continue to improve its productivity," he said.
Edwards also believes the cost of the GPS proposal would be too high considering "all the bureaucracy costs of setting up and installing the system, hiring satellite time, running the computers and having all the analysts looking at data."
"Do we really need all that? Edwards asked.
Copyright CNSNews.com
:o) Stay Safe !
GPS measures location by the time delay in a signal between the space vehicle and the receiver. The location in 3D space for each space vehicle is known precisely. The time delay defines a spherical surface with the space vehicle at the origin. The intersection of 2 spheres defines a circle. A 3rd sphere defines 2 points on that circle. The 4th sphere identifies which of the 2 points is the correct one.
The GPS satellite transmits almanac data that identify which space vehicle is transmitting a specific CDMA code and roughly where the vehicle is located in space. This data is stable over about 6 months. The ephemeris data is updated on 12 hour intervals and provides fine adjustments to the current position and orbital elements of a given space vehicle. Given a point in time, you can calculate the exactly location in space of a given space vehicle. Collecting timestamped delay samples from 4 space vehicles is adequate for a good 3D fix. 3 space vehicles will give an adequate 2D fix for a ground based receiver.
WTF are you talking about now fleeb?
Go lick a boot and tell yourself that Lord State knows best...right up until they are herding you into the urban "work" center, then try to play it all down as hysteria...I'm sure your idiot opinions will be welcome then.
EBUCK
No kidding, just tell people it's tied to the war on terrorism and" "to drive without a GPS is riding with Bin Laden!" (the start singing the Star spangled Banner or something and at least half of FR will instantly support the measure.
PS: there was some cornflake on here a week or so back who was pushing this same gps idea, except his angle was hi-jacked cars.
You know, I bet "Big Insurance" would like to have this capability. Oh yeah..
And by the way, heavy trucks, by and through fuel taxes, IRS Heavy Road Use tax, IFTA fuel taxes, annual tag fees, and general operating authority fees pay the great majority of monies that are used to build and maintain roads in this country.
I have seen many different statements by the govt and trucking associations that put the percentage at some 70 to 80 percent of the money that is actually spent on such construction.
In additiion, there is supposed to be a highway trust fund that was to have accumulated funds for this purpose. Like Social Security and other such "trust funds" it has been robbed by the politicians and currently contains only govt IOUs.
I would like to see your evidence regarding the 90% claim.
Your Libertarian hysteria over one who you agree with on drugs(Dem Gov. of Oregon John Kitzhaber).
Go lick a boot and tell yourself that Lord State knows best...right up until they are herding you into the urban "work" center, then try to play it all down as hysteria...I'm sure your idiot opinions will be welcome then.
Where did I agree with the rat GPS tax, please show me. All I did was point out Libertarian outrage comparing this outrageous GPS tax to the outrage that Libertarians have that whores and druggies can't be "left alone" on street corners.
Must be someone who stands to gain from it financially.
It's one thing if people want to voluntarily put GPS in their vehicles, but to force it on us is a little different. Anyone who can't see the danger in that is blind, or is being influenced by some other motivating factor, maybe monetary.
I can't think of any good reasons, but I can think of a lot of evil ones...
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