States droping tax on gas !!

[beandip]

The state of Calif is looking into taxing you by the miles driven insted of by the gallon of fuel. Now that the hi-breds are showing up more and more this is the serious proposal . What they are afraid of is that because of the hi mileage cars that they will loose the tax base . They are going to require a gps device on all cars that will be read each time the car is gased up at the pump and the cost will be calulated and must be paid at that time. Oregon is also looking hard at the same thing. BIG BROTHER WILL BE WATCHING YOU HOW FAR AND WHERE YOU DRIVE , HOW FAST ALSO . All these things and more is the proposal . Gary I am not making this up . It was on the evening news and it showed the gps device connected to a lap top and it was spitting out all sorts of info. :disappoin

[sonofzzzap]

My word....

[xray]

Yikes! I know we need to pay a bit to the State for highway maintenance, but this is crazy!!!

Questions:

1) How can you guarantee that CA-based cars do all their travel in CA? If you gas up in San Diego and drive in Baja, why pay tax on the mileage?

2) Conversely, what about interstate travel? Live in say, Tijuana and gas up there (no GPS yet) and use the CA highway system and pay no tax? Not very accurate a taxation system if you ask me.

I would expect this idea and the whole "Big Brother" effect to generate major bad PR and hope a less-invasive means of taxation (property tax-type of highway use taxation plan) would end up being the lesser of two evils. Good luck, Californians!

[hls30.com]

Who is going to pay for the retro fitting?

Will

[MikeW]

Why are so many people from Georgia replying to this?

We have some of the lowest gas taxes in the country and therefore the about the lowest overall prices.

[beandip]

one thing about a gps it shows position and it's just a easy matter to store the info no matter where you go. It will be stored until dowloaded and or erased. I am sure if this is implemented the ts will be crossed and the i's will be dotted. This is all being worked on . I have seen this type of thing done in the past .They make a big splash and wait for the upheavel , then back off and settle for simular less unpopular virsion as a compromise and the public thinks that they have a gotten a deal. Just look back when they started the sales tax in your state . 3 % maby and now it's lilely to be 8 % I live in Ore. and we have no sales tax but they try every other year to pass one . However just because I dont live in cal I when they do something then it spreads like a canser. Cat Converters is a good example unleaded gas another.

[Alfadog]

How can they argue that tax for petrol should be paid for how far your drive, not how much petrol you use? Surely you would want to encourage fuel-economy, not discourage it?!?!?

Or maybe it's just an excuse to monitor everyone. Next up - automatic speeding fines emailed to your door! err.. dont laugh too soon

[Go240Zags]

The state of Calif is looking into taxing you by the miles driven insted of by the gallon of fuel. Now that the hi-breds are showing up more and more this is the serious proposal . What they are afraid of is that because of the hi mileage cars that they will loose the tax base . They are going to require a gps device on all cars that will be read each time the car is gased up at the pump and the cost will be calulated and must be paid at that time. Oregon is also looking hard at the same thing. BIG BROTHER WILL BE WATCHING YOU HOW FAR AND WHERE YOU DRIVE , HOW FAST ALSO . All these things and more is the proposal . Gary I am not making this up . It was on the evening news and it showed the gps device connected to a lap top and it was spitting out all sorts of info. :disappoin

In Washington State it is against the law for the government or law enforcement agencies to use a GPS to track your movements without a Court Approved Warrant based on Probable Cause. I'm not a paranoid or an anti-government wacko, but this sounds like another errosion of a citizen's rights. Rights like freedom of movement w/out having to tell anyone where you're going or where you've been. Glad I don't live in California. P.S. I'll take our sales tax (none on food) over a state income tax any day. No matter how many times someone tries to push a state income tax in Wash. the people always vote it down. Not very trusting as we know they promise no sales tax, but soon we'd have both.

[Bambikiller240]

How can they argue that tax for petrol should be paid for how far your drive, not how much petrol you use? Surely you would want to encourage fuel-economy, not discourage it?!?!?

Or maybe it's just an excuse to monitor everyone. Next up - automatic speeding fines emailed to your door! err.. dont laugh too soon

The petrol tax was used (allegedly) for infrastructure (roads, highways, bridges,etc).

If this comes to pass the "petrol" tax will be eliminated, and replaced by a "road use" tax (based on the number of miles driven).

Reason being that with higher miles per gallon, and alternative fuel vehicles the cents per gallon petrol tax no longer will bring the necessary funds to maintain/replace/improve the roads.

I'm sure there is a little "big brother" in it also. The government is starting to encourage people to have "chips" implanted in our bodies, claiming benefits to include storage of medical info, identity, and eventually financial info (no more debt cards, just wave your arm past a scanner).

[MikeW]

I don't know if this is still the case but it used to be that in Florida vehicles were taxed based on how heavy they were. The reasoning here was that heavier vechicles like trucks caused proportionately higher wear and tear on the roads and other infrustructure.

[Corganx33]

It would be so much simpler if they wanted to tax miles driven to simply read your odometer every year when you got your car inspected and charge you on the difference from last year. One sum charged once a year. And it wouldn't cost anything either. No need to install GPS's in your car or anything....

Government amazes me sometimes. Dumb, expensive solutions for easily solved issues, and half the time the solutions don't fix the problem.

[hls30.com]

Too easy to cheet! disconnect/replace ...

Will