Featured IL Senate President blames Prius for declining gas tax revenues

Oh. Goody. Don't they have better things to do?

 

That's one strange political position for an urban Dem from Chicago. They can tack a small fee on EV's to cover that gap. After that, the per gal gaso tax makes pretty good policy sense, so it's hard to fix something that ain't broken.

In Virginia our Repubs opted to increase sales taxes since they did not like the idea of higher gaso taxes.

NOTE: Except for his extremely unfair verbal shot at Prius, he is OK in theory. We can only ask that "hybrids" are not singled out for unfair tax punishment. As long as all cars pay the same "per mile" tax, that is not specifically unfair to hybrids. Might be bad policy, but not unfair.

Sounds to me like he must be interested in selling gizmos and infrastructure to record mile per year. Watch your pocketbooks in IL!

 

We're developing an infrastructure in which every "smart" device tracks its usage and reports it to the government for the sake of taxing us and/or manipulating/coercing our actions. We're being trained to expect constant oversight and micromanagement. It's a fine way to run an anthill, but unsuited for adult human beings.

 

Check out Oregon's pilot: MyOReGO | A new way to fund roads for all Oregonians

The Oregon pilot has 3 systems. The basic one through the state just measures miles driven and doesn't care where you've been. The other 2 use GPS so they can credit you for out-of-state driving.

Simplicity v accuracy.

It's about time. Electrification will be coming in earnest in the next few years and governments need to get on top of this.

 

So, you just unplug the device for when you don't want to pay for the tax ?

 

I am of mixed feeling about this concept.
If the purpose of gas taxes are to pay for roads, then the gas taxes should be dedicated to that only and not mixed with general funds (which they currently are in MN, not sure about elsewhere).

Second, if that is the only purpose, then the gas tax should be removed and a per mile fee combined with a weight fee should be implemented. As heavier vehicles cause more damage to roads.

If we want to encourage efficiency through the taxes, then either the gas tax should be left alone, or if we switch to a per mile fee, the fee should be indexed to the vehicles efficiency.

In either case, the tax or fees should also be indexed to inflation so we don't have to go through this every few years/decades.

 

This is not a hard problem:

1. Annual road access fee - part of the vehicle license, flat rate or possibly indexed by gross weight.
2. Annual surtax/fee for non-gas or diesel vehicles
   1. Keep the gas/diesel tax to encourage efficient vehicles over guzzlers

Is this so hard?

Bob Wilson

 

The thing is, a fair per mile fee would cost more in adminstration than it would get in revenue, for cars.

Really, a flat rate on annual registration, weight indexed, to cover road costs is the way to go, at least for personal vehicles. Use fuel taxation to cover the negative externalities of fuel consumption (emissions, national security, etc.)

Now, trucks, they do enough damage (there's a fourth power of weight per axle rule that highway authorities use to estimate weight damage to roads, and the resulting design requirements of the road based on expected traffic) that they should pay a lot more, and per mile taxation makes more sense.

 

Of course the other option would be to require any high-current, vehicle charging stations to have a separate meter with road-tax surcharges. If someone wants to charge on 110 VAC (4 miles per hour) or 220 VAC (8 miles per hour), fine. This is down in the noise.

Bob Wilson

 

we already pay a yearly 'excise tax' in mass for all registered vehicles. does anyone else?

registration fee

insurance

sales tax

excise tax

finally, you're on the road, and still paying state and federal gas taxes with a prius.

first he says 'if all cars were electric, there would be no money for the roads'. then he says, 'the prius owners are the reason we need the bill'. huh?

this is all about politics, and nothing to do with infrastructure repair and maintenance.

 

The one guy in New Hampshire had a proposal (psuedo-per-mile-tax) where each year registration fee would be based in MPG: a higher MPG like Prius you pay a little more based on 12000 miles/year.

Bob is right...Australia does this...just rely more on annual registration fee for taxes and that way each vehicle is paying same base fee. In Australia I think its about $1000/car/yr which tends to force folks to get rid of cars they do not want to use much.

...ain't it the truth? (to quote bisco) almost sounds like the per mile tax people are donating to the Chicago guys campaign fund

 

not unfair in this case may be subjective. Tobacco, just like diesel/gas fumes kill & maim millions. Why is it fair to jack tobacco prices sky high, but not fossil fuel ... one doesn't even have to get into CO2 damage 'fairness' ... or the oily interests/military load sharing.
There's a much larger interest being funded by the fossil fuel industry to maintain the incoming revenue, wealth class, & tax dollar status quo than there is to protect health of people & environment.
.... should we just pretend it's about potholes and stopsigns getting funded & fixed?

.

 

tobacco?