tax per mile

It should. When all considerations of privacy and good policy are secondary to clawing as much revenue out of every citizen doing something constructive, then the government has become a parasite.

Hardly any different than taxing non-smokers a fee for how much they breath. This being due to the loss in revenue from folks giving up smoking. (Actually, maybe NO different depending on what smokes.)

 

Oh, come on!! Revenues are needed to build & maintain roads. Up till now, this has mostly been from gas tax, but as the amount of revenue decreases from gas tax as vehicles become more efficient (or don't use gas at all) this revenue needs to be made up in other ways. Which is fairer to the general taxpayer: 1) Tax by mile for those not using much (or any) gas; or 2) Tax everyone, no matter how much, or what, they drive? Or perhaps the state should not bother maintaing the roads at all??

 

"dhancock" has it correct. Despite the price of motor fuel, vehicles in general have become more efficient to the point that there are significant shortfalls in the revenue needed to build and maintain the roads. The likely solution is just going to be a per-mile tax. It's simple, and while one might argue that to place a flat tax on all vehicles, regardless of efficiency, isn't particularly fair, it at least has the virtue of simplicity, which would stand in stark contrast to the rest of our tax code......

 

Simpler to just raise the tax on gas. It will have the side benefit of pushing people toward more fuel efficient vehicles. I think the gas tax should be a percentage of the price of gas, the higher the price the more revenue.

 

The issue was entirely with the method of raising revenue, not with the need. Taxes on what we buy is OK. Taxes on what we do is entirely different. Most all methods raising revenue based on what we do provides the government with both an excuse and need to monitor individual behavior and decisions.....which requires even more revenue to keep everyone under the microscope.

 

What is wrong with taxing electricity or any power purchase? Again when the discussion shifts into the "the ends justify the means", we have missed the point.

 

How about taxes on what we USE?? Perhaps a toll booth every 5 miles on each and every road, and the toll based on the weight (equating to wear and tear on the road) of the vehicle.

 

The early days of road building in the U.S. were not public, but private. Companies built turnpikes (the name of the gate that stopped vehicles at the entrance) and collected tolls. Early free enterprise, perhaps we need to return to that.

 

So, I take it that your vote would to just let the roads decay?

 

I'm in California and it appears that the Golden State has already stopped maintaining and repairing the roads and highways. BTW; are gas taxes based on a fixed FE per gallon purchased or a percentage of the per gallon price?

 

o/p, you should move to a more progressive state.

 

Maybe the system to maintain the roads should be fixed before we tax more and pour it down the black hole.

 

Increase the tax on gas. At the moment the cost of gas is less than the price we ALL pay. The real cost of gas should be somewhere around $15.00 / gal.

Giving tax subsidies to encourage efficient cars, and then taxing them more is just plain stupid.

 

I think the proper measure is weight squared, but I am not sure.

 

And what is wrong with "the system to maintain the roads". The major problem that many of us see (as evidenced by our decaying infrastructure) is not funding enough maintenance (though this varies considerably from state to state).

 

No more taxes. Put gov on a diet.

 

I'd rather they just icrease the state and federal gas taxes enough to offset the short term losses and eventually increase the taxes on electricity to offset the long term shift.

Screw trying to figure out who does what, just tax the source(s) of energy and let the cost/benefit of each power source fall where it may.

And while we are at it adjust the rates higher on water, electric, natural gas and lower the "monthly service charge" or "billing fee". It's insane that if I use zero water for the month my bill is 80% as high as it is when I use thousands of gallons of water. Similar issues with other metered services though I haven't yet been able to get the minimum bill on electric to approach my average usage so close like the water bill does.

Or in short: Let me save money by using less, I can't increase my income so don't punish me for trying to save.

 

The cost to build a road is much higher than maintaining the road. Don't create more taxes for already built roads. Stop giving tax payers money to foreign governments and redistribute to infrastructure in America.