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.
McCain (walks into room, sees Inhofe, slightly startled): ARE YOU THE TAX SPECIALIST?
Inhofe (slightly startled): NO!!
McCain looks confused...
Inhofe (thinking hard): YES!! YES!! I AM THE TAX SPECIALIST!!!
McCain (hurting because of thinking hard): WE..NEED..MORE..TAXES!!
If these guys are "experts" on anything....it's how to tax the American people.
I thought our taxes already went to pay for roads? And the stimulus bill? How many times are we going to pay taxes for the same thing that never gets done anyway?
LOL! :0)
I'm surprised there is no birth tax....on the other hand, all kids today are born into debt so I guess they got that angle covered too....it's past time
You got that right. I’m through with those backstabbing slimes.
Republican wing of the Socialists.
You know, vs the Democrat wing of the Socialists.
>>>> They will do it with RFID chips. <<<<<<<
That doesn’t make any sense.
There aren’t toll booths and/or tracking stations on every road in America.
Nor is there any kind of computer system or infrastructure in place to collect and analyze that data from those nonexistent tracking stations.
Nor do any of America’s 250 million PASSENGER cars have a RFID chip installed, not to mention the tens of millions of commericial vehicles.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s RFID or GPS or whatever, there’s no underlying infrastructure to support any of it.
“Mileage tax for driving. Carbon tax for exhaling. Tax on food. Tax for flushing. Tax on the driveway for the rain water run off. And on and on. Will we ever run out of things to tax? And to pay for...???”
Please dont forget to send you’re “freespeech” fee to the govt for that post.
Short answer?
No!
Long answer?
No!
Any more questions?
Good!
Thank you for participating in today’s Civics lesson.
Have a nice day!
CA....
>>>>> Their idea though is to record mileage at registration renewal time and calculate miles driven. <<<<<<<<
Well of course.
From a “can do” perspective it’s very easy to read an odometer and calculate a federal tax. I think most states read odometers at mandated auto inspection checks, and the feds will demand (aka “extort”) that same odometer data for taxation purposes. Or somehow they’ll extort and force the states to collect it. (Which might be tricky)
But the GPS/RFID/electronic device tracking idea is just absurd as a systems and real-world implementation question.
It makes no sense if you know one single thing about how the feds do big budget projects and contracts.
Nor is there any kind of computer system or infrastructure in place to collect and analyze that data from those nonexistent tracking stations.
Nor do any of America’s 250 million PASSENGER cars have a RFID chip installed, not to mention the tens of millions of commericial vehicles.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s RFID or GPS or whatever, there’s no underlying infrastructure to support any of it.
Please place the word "yet" after each of your sentences above. Thank you.
It's no longer about party.
It's no longer about "Democrat" or "Republican".
It's...
Us....
...vs....
...Them!!!!
CA....
"They" can put video cameras in your bathroom and bedroom. But "they" don't. Because it's a ridiculous idea.
They can have DEQ slap a GPS device in everyone’s vehicles when they come in for inspection.
Yes. "They" can. But how do "they" collect the data from America's 250 million passenger vehicles? And what do "they" do with it? Who looks at it? How do they analyze it? Where do "they" store it? Who manages it?
You need to stop thinking that "they" are omnipotent, or event smart.
>>>>>> Or they could mandate that the states set up toll booths on all incoming and outgoing roads from major cities... <<<<<<<
That would defeat the whole purpose.
They want to tax those citizens in the midwest who do a lot of driving, not city people who don’t.
Absolutely!
>>>>> Please place the word “yet” after each of your sentences above. Thank you. <<<<<<<
Ridiculous.
Which brings me to the ironic part...as Oklahoma is Inhofe's home state...and our state political "leaders" have passed that very "amendment, law, resolution".
Heck...Inhofe probably has no idea...what's going on in his own state.
Thing is, we see the logic in doing the obvious, but the gumbmint won't, they'll try and go with the GPS because they have ulterior motives.
Medium to large sized cities.......
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