Comments on: I HATE This Idea: Taxing Drivers By the Mile

By: todd

todd — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:01:08 +0000

sorry to outburst but i’m sick of double standards and people thinking they don’t have to chip in. In balt city a white old lady was assaulted by 5 black males on a bus but no hate crimes were filed. There’s a NAACp headquarters 3 miles from where that happened. but if they were 5 white males they’d never see the light of day again. ridiculous! they’d say we’ll drop gas tax but they’d keep that then tax per mile. think man! couple that to the fact it must start a new agency of overpayed minorities who won’t fully qualify for the jobs this tax will create. Things don’t run themselves you idiots. everything needs oversight. factories that make foods still need workers to run machines and so do gps devices and tax agencies

By: todd

todd — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:50:57 +0000

to anna:
you miss the fact that roads help us all so we should all pay. the demise of our country comes from a tiny word. Hate. People hate to see others do well. we hate certain groups of people as a whole. just ask the rich we already tax them so hard they pay for 90% of the total tax rev. and make up less than 10% of the population. Last time I checked the rich are the ones with more money to spend. when i got my stimulus i had to pay bills with it. Rich people didnt need that money so they used it buying new products which helped our economy. Screw obamas plan to create everything equal. I want an equal shot at a government job. i applied for the post office in MD where i live and nobody called back but i’ll be damned if they dont have new black workers all the time coming and going. when whites are the MINORITY, i’m draining everyone of everything I can and making sure everythings EQUAL. so equally pay for the roads anna, you douchebag!

By: Preston

Preston — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:41:44 +0000

sam, you’re advocating I pay for my freedoms and liberties. I’m far more practical than that: If I’m going to not have those freedoms and liberties, I will at least get a chance to pay less.

You have no privacy. Don’t deceive yourself.

By: sam

sam — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:26:44 +0000

I can’t believe that people are arguing about relative merits of this idea. The fact that someone in the government thinks it is a good idea to put a tracking device into our cars and record where we are driving is depressing and infuriating. And apparently some persons have no problem giving away more of the dwindling amount of their privacy in search of some more “fair” or “progressive” way to collect the tax on fuel. People with such a low regard for their liberty or privacy deserve neither.

By: Beth

Beth — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:36:12 +0000

Could we possibly look at the programs that do not work and the money we are squandering on them?

I made the choice to live in a small town and drive 20 miles (one way) to work. If I were to give up my job, and obtain a job in the town where I live to avoid the tax, I would likely take a 60% cut in pay. That would lower my tax obligation all the way around – and give me less disposable income.

If there is a way to jam these devices, you know someone will figure it out. The government needs to figure out they need to reward the good – punish the bad.

We need more fiscal responsibility – not more rules and regulations!

By: Geoff

Geoff — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:51:34 +0000

The only reason they would need to use a gps is to make sure that they are only charging you when you are driving on american roads. The idea is the same for states trying the pay-per-mile tax, they want to make sure they’re only taxing you for using state roads, not when you are out of state.

As others have said, roads aren’t cheap, we’ve built too many into places with few individuals and everyone else is paying for those roads, and if you want to live in rural areas you have to deal with the costs; and the gas tax is only a bandaid to our infrastructure problems since cars are becoming more efficient and the federal and most state gas taxes are not linked to inflation. The only problem I see with this is that larger vehicles may not be taxed more than smaller ones even though larger vehicles wear down the road faster.

By: thomas

thomas — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 03:13:18 +0000

You forgot to add: bicyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders, unicyclists (I actually saw one yesterday). They all use the roads and from my understanding, aren’t contributing enough to the system. We could open up extra lanes if bike lanes were removed.

The real reason for this is actually quite simple – The gov’t isn’t getting the tax dollars. Think of how much they are pushing fuel efficient cars and how the economy is affecting our behavior. Taxes come from fuel sales, a majority of it for all you anti oil company folks, and now that we have begun correcting our behavior the gov’t revenue is down.

So this is their answer, to punish good behavior. Oh sure, there are still people who drive Hummers and all that, but the real reason is the gov’t needs more of your money.

ALWAYS follow the money.

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:16:21 +0000

I find it amazing the ACLU and other civil liberty folks aren’t screaming loudly about privacy. I guess when their dude is in the office, who cares about privacy.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:42:51 +0000

There are two things that bother me about this idea:

#1 – Using taxes as a method of controlling people’s behavior. Trying to “force” people to drive less by taxing them (or raising the gas price artificially) is dangerously curtailing freedoms that Americans have bought and paid for with their lives. Sure, Americans didn’t die in order to have “freedom to drive” – but they did fight and die in order to have their freedoms NOT encumbered with additional, useless legislation.

#2 – From what I’m reading, the idea is to replace the gas tax with the per-mile tax. So, the government “promises” that it will remove taxes on gasoline once it institutes the per-mile tax? And we believe them? As has recently been pointed out to me, how often are taxes REMOVED??

Add to that that I’m totally against GPS devices in my car the the government has installed, and you have my reasons for being totally against this plan. The government is a sucky money manager, or it wouldn’t need all this additional income. My opinion:

No New Taxes!

By: BD

BD — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:11:24 +0000

Taxi customers already pay a fare based on miles driven – it just seems obvious to me that they’d pay new miles-driven tax through higher fares! Why are you skeptical?

I wish there was a way to implement this other than GPS units, though. Maybe at the same time that you have to get a smog check you could get an official odometer reading?