Being Taxed by the Mile

Oh my.


From the article:

The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove — tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center.

What once was science fiction is being field-tested by the University of Iowa to iron out the wrinkles should a by-the-mile road tax ever be enacted.

Now doesn't that sound pleasant. I'm sure the government would NEVER use the information in that GPS for any other purpose. I'm sure of it. I know it.

Actually, I'm not really that stupid. Does anyone believe that the government would NOT take advantage of that? Talk about leverage (ok, blackmail) to use against political enemies, right wing extremists, and other terrorists.

"We know where you were last night. If you do what we want, then we might forget all about it."

Also from the article:

the idea is getting a hard push from a growing number of transportation experts and officials. That is because the traditional by-the-gallon fuel tax, struggling to keep up with road building and maintenance demands, could fall even farther behind as vehicles’ gas mileage rises and more alternative-fuel vehicles come on line.

All I can say to that is if you want to encourage people to buy more fuel efficient cars you shouldn't be reducing one of the advantages to owning a more fuel efficient car.

If you want to encourage an activity you don't raise the taxes associated with that activity.

Call me paranoid but this seems like another attempt to increase government snooping while disguising it as something else.

There is no right answer to highway funding, but if you keep increasing the population the way we have in this country then you have a bigger problem to deal with.