Quote:
Originally Posted by wall st kid
I dont understand why not just tax the gas and let people maintain their privacy? Or, is this just a ruse to gain more information about people and their habits and its just DISGUISED as a pay as you drive tax?
|
I agree, but a valid issue is that there is a large variation between the fuel consumption of cars now days, thus some are not "paying their share", which is fine until it becomes too many, or the simple fact that they justt are not paying their fair share. You could raise the fuel tax, but difficult to do because of the fact the fuel taxes now get siphoned off for non-road purposes.
You could have a special assessment on high mpg cars, but kind of defeats the economic purpose of them, as well as counters the tax credits if any get them.
The first question to settle is - is more money needed? Well, no, because there is more than enough taxes collected to maintain the roads.
Then it becomes an issue that the taxes are being used to guide the habits of people, thus the higher the fuel price, the less driving. Problem is, the gov in most places never have presented a viable alternative. Another issue is that promoters of the raise in fuel tax will never claim it is for forcing people to do something, they will always argue "it is for the roads".