Posted on 03/29/2009 6:12:42 AM PDT by Osage Orange
Mileage tax might be road bill funding source, Inhofe says
By JIM MYERS World Washington Bureau
Published: 3/26/2009 2:31 AM
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Wednesday that a proposal to tax motorists on the miles they drive is being looked at as an alternative method to funding much-needed road projects.
Conceding that such an approach could be awkward, the Oklahoma Republican said such proposals must be part of the discussion as he and other key member of Congress begin putting together the next huge transportation spending authorization bill.
"No one thing is going to do it,'' Inhofe said, citing the backlog of transportation needs and a fuel tax that no longer raises enough revenue.
As the top Republican on the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, which has jurisdiction over transportation legislation, Inhofe will play a major role in crafting the bill to replace the current law, which expires in September.
Inhofe spoke during an interview after a hearing with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Disappointing several members of the committee, LaHood once again ruled out an increase in the fuel tax as a way to generate more money for transportation projects. He cited the difficulty in raising taxes during hard economic times.
Even though the White House strongly came out last month against LaHood's suggestion that lawmakers should discuss taxing motorists on miles driven, he seemed to leave that idea on the table.
Inhofe confirmed that such a proposal is still alive.
"We are going to try to come up with something in terms of a VMT (vehicle miles traveled) approach,'' he said, agreeing with LaHood that a fuel tax increase should not be one of the options.
"On the VMT, no one has figured out how you can do that other than the honor system, which never works.''
Inhofe said one possible method could be checking a vehicle's mileage when its registration is renewed.
A VMT tax could be layered on top of the fuel tax, which might be reduced dramatically or eliminated altogether, Inhofe said.
Automobiles, especially hybrids, are not using as much fuel as they once did, he said, explaining why the fuel tax no longer can be viewed as a reliable source for transportation projects.
Inhofe said other options under review include indexing the fuel tax to inflation and limiting the use of money in the trust fund to highways and bridges.
Supporters of mass transit projects and other programs would have to look elsewhere for funding, he said.
Inhofe said the amount of the next multiyear transportation bill needs to come in at about $400 billion.
His office reported that the last bill totaled $286.4 billion.
Inhofe, who is proud of his conservative voting record in Congress, said, "I know it sounds funny coming from me, being a big spender in that area, but I am.''
He said such a dramatic increase is necessary because of the huge backlog of projects.
"It is somewhat life-threatening,'' he said of the condition of certain roads.
Oklahoma has slipped into last place among the states in the condition of its bridges, he said, citing examples of concrete falling off some of them.
It's like them robbing and tapping our Social Security funds to satisfy their compulsive spending habits, then they make the claim there just is not enough tax to support the fund. And they never replace or account for the money they have stolen, they only take more.
Here we go again, allowing them to to make every excuse in the book to compensate for their irresponsible inability to be trusted with our hard earned money.
Oh, that’s IT.
Inhofe was one of the few people up there I thought had a brain in his head. Guess not.
I’m SICK of the Government crying “poverty!” when they pick OUR pockets at EVERY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY, then cry they don’t have enough to “take care of us” and come up with some new scheme to take even MORE of our money.
Hey, MORON... If I drive more, that’s MY RIGHT and it’s none of the Government’s business how far I drive, when I drive, or where I drive. I’m paying for my car... I’m paying to “register” my car (a completely bogus yearly charge, by the way.. for which I receive absolutely nothing except a piece of paper).. I’m paying for the license to be allowed to DRIVE my car... I’m paying (by law, not by choice) for insurance ON my car, and I’m paying to fill my far with fuel – including a nice hefty tax which goes to... you guessed it... OUR BELOVED GOVERNMENT.
Smart meters on the electricity coming into our homes and 24/7 GPS tracking of our vehicles and cell phones, the only thing missing is an implanted tracking device in each and everyone of us..
There is already a tax to maintain roads. The money is mispent by state legislatures.
If spent as intended there would not be a problem nor need for additional road tax
Hope that was okay with you......
Dont forget the congress with 70 republicans voting for the messiah’s voluntary slavery bill. Do we even have Republican Whips anymore????
Thats just about the extent of it - both parties foing to the same place, the dems just want to get us there faster than the repubs.
Government, by it’s very nature, must expand and encompass every activity of it’s subjects.
It is up to us to insist on and enforce that expansion.
>>>>> When has a “impossible, wacky, debt ridden Big Government Program” stopped them from trying? <<<<<<<<
Oh, they can try to build a humongous computer infrastructure and systems to track the vehicular movements of every car. truck, bus, and vehicle int he United States.
I’m just saying that like every big federal IT project inside the Beltway, it will cost a LOT of money, take a LOT of time, require a LOT of engineering talent, and have a LOT of failures.
That’s just from a technical and project management view.
The public policy and taxation ramifications would be huge, maybe not so much from out Obamafied and MySpaced fellow citizens, but certainly from he national commerical interests that would (very rightly) be extremely PO’d about this stuff.
Should be = It is up to us to insist on limits and enforce that expansion.
Agreed..........
I've reached the same conclusion. I had seen it a while ago, but I think that for a long time I really didn't want to admit to myself that it was true. The two parties are just fronts for one ruling oligarchy. I'm done hoping that conservatism will come back to the GOP. We've got to get the few young conservatives with common sense, who aren't connected to the party machine, to work outside system and run as independents.
Remember, for the subjects of Airstrip One, the skill to hold two diametrically opposed thoughts in your mind as both being true was vital for survival.
It’s a dumb question but I’ll ask it anyway:
Why can our brilliant U.S. Senators not devise a budget to maintain federal highways using existing tax revenues and methods?
The robbers and thieves in the United States Senate are completely and totally out of control.
They need to be thrown out of office.
All of them.
Soon.
Not just the Rats.
Now this is something that could be done very easily.
Of course people who know they are going to get taxed per mile are going to cut vacations and other unnecessary trips doing wonders for an already fragile economy
That is already being done. They call it a gasoline tax.
Not only are obama and the Democrat Party working full speed on the destruction of the United States the Republican Party is matching them step for step.
No wonder we are headed into a depression full speed ahead.
They don’t have to actively track everyone 24/7. They can just archive the data and go back to look at the movements of certain “persons of interest”. Freepers for instance. They can have DEQ slap a GPS device in everyone’s vehicles when they come in for inspection.
“The reason the gas tax is so HIGH is due to the bloated bureaucracy and corrupt officials overseeing the implementation/construction of the funds. Oversight and more importantly, actually doing something about the management of our tax dollars is why our tax bill is so high (That and programs which are fundamentally inefficient).”
...and you support a mileage tax? Or you think that the roads will do just fine without maintenance? Or you think that government will clean itself up?
We do try to be realistic out here, and when you look at the cost of driving if it is allowed to be “market-priced”, you’ll learn to appreciate the gas tax.
(i.e., in Canada, market-priced is about 30 cents per mile for the equivalent of an open interstates. In California, market-priced is about $1.00 per mile for getting around a congested freeway)
Get real.
They don’t need continuous GPS tracking. They will do it with RFID chips. The EZ pass on the NYS Thruway is an example of that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.