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Oregon is moving ahead with a controversial plan to tax motorists based on the number of miles they drive as opposed to the amount of fuel they consume, raising myriad concerns about cost and privacy.
The program, springing out of a recently signed bill, is expected to launch in 2015 on a volunteer basis. But it’s charting relatively new territory, and other states aching for additional tax revenue are sure to be watching closely to see whether to imitate the model.
...
The Oregon plan -- approved and signed into law this year by the state’s Democrat-run government -- would replace the 30-cents-a-gallon state tax with one for 1.5 cents a mile, for those participating.
Yuck. Who wants the government snoops tracking where they go?
This is what you get when you try to increase tax revenue OUTSIDE of what should occur - which is getting people jobs, increasing the economy and the GDP, etc.
The voluntary aspect will become mandatory. That's a no-brainer.
At least they are not keeping both consumption and gas purchase taxes... yet...
Oregon has a higher percentage of high MPG vehicles than other states. So they see declining gas tax revenues. Hence the desire to tax by miles instead of gallons. A hybrid owner might pay their "fair" share of taxes intended to pay for roads.
But this is all wrong and way too intrusive.
They should just increase the registration fee of hybrid or electric cars to by enough to offset how little they pay in gasoline taxes. No mileage tracking devices required.
Oregon is moving ahead with a controversial plan to tax motorists based on the number of miles they drive as opposed to the amount of fuel they consume, raising myriad concerns about cost and privacy.
The program, springing out of a recently signed bill, is expected to launch in 2015 on a volunteer basis. But it’s charting relatively new territory, and other states aching for additional tax revenue are sure to be watching closely to see whether to imitate the model.
... The Oregon plan -- approved and signed into law this year by the state’s Democrat-run government -- would replace the 30-cents-a-gallon state tax with one for 1.5 cents a mile, for those participating.
Yuck. Who wants the government snoops tracking where they go?
This is what you get when you try to increase tax revenue OUTSIDE of what should occur - which is getting people jobs, increasing the economy and the GDP, etc.
The voluntary aspect will become mandatory. That's a no-brainer.
At least they are not keeping both consumption and gas purchase taxes... yet...
Aren't people already taxed per mile via the tax on gasoline?
This is an awfully tough method to collect taxes for road maintenance.
One issue I missed in the article is...
... do the drivers that choose the user fee approach still have to pay the fuel tax when they fill up and wait to get refunded later?
I don't know. But I can say that the state of Oregon takes money from you first, and then demands you prove you didn't owe it later. My banker repeated the same thing. "They take it first, and then do anything they can think of, to avoid giving it back."
We had the state of Oregon "vanish" almost $17,000 in payments made to them (we could prove they were made) and then threatened us with prosecution for failing to pay them. When we provided the evidence to them, they suddenly "found" it overnight, even though we'd argued with them for weeks. And then fined us and demanded interest be paid for those payments being "late". Except we could prove they were not late.
Basically, I trust NO government, nor government employee. Ever.
Oregon has a higher percentage of high MPG vehicles than other states. So they see declining gas tax revenues. Hence the desire to tax by miles instead of gallons. A hybrid owner might pay their "fair" share of taxes intended to pay for roads.
But this is all wrong and way too intrusive.
They should just increase the registration fee of hybrid or electric cars to by enough to offset how little they pay in gasoline taxes. No mileage tracking devices required.
Hybrid cars do damage to the road every time they roll over them. I believe it's very fair to recover their part in the damage done.
However, how does weight and number of axles figure in this tax? The article mentioned nothing about differing tax rates or multipliers based on those (or other) characteristics of the vehicle.
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"everybody getting reported now.."
(set 25 days ago)
Location: Pine Grove,AL
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Theoretically Oregon is going to get atleast a 50% increase in revenue from any car that gets 30 miles to the gallon or less.
I am not getting how this is invasive or what ever you guys want to call it. Every time you take your car to a dealer, they record your mileage.
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