Draft Proposal Would Create Agency To Tax Cars By the Mile 932
theodp writes "The Hill reports that the Obama administration has floated a transportation authorization bill that would require the study and implementation of a plan to tax automobile drivers based on how many miles they drive. The plan is a part of the administration's 'Transportation Opportunities Act,' and calls for spending $200 million to implement a new Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office tasked with creating a 'study framework that defines the functionality of a mileage-based user fee system and other systems.' The office would be required to consider four factors — the capability of states to enforce payment, the reliability of technology, administrative costs, and 'user acceptance' — in field trials slated to begin within four years at unspecified sites. Forbes suggests the so-called vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax should be called the Rube Goldberg Gas Tax, because while its objective is the same as the gas tax, the way it collects revenue is extremely complex, costly and cumbersome." The disclaimers are thick on the ground, though; note, this is an "early draft," not pending legislation.
Re:how bout (Score:4, Informative)
"force the oil companies that for every cent above 2 dollars they charge per gallon, the US government gets 2 cents of it"
Am I parsing this wrong? The government would get 2 cents for every 1 cent?
Re:Couldn't be simpler (Score:5, Informative)
Just have drivers self report it and make it one of the things that gets verified in the event of an audit. Make the fines and fees exactly the same as if the person had cheated on their taxes some other way. If a car is sold, have a way for the buyer and seller to, independently of each other, submit the mileage at the time of sale and if there's a significant discrepancy have the new owner take it down to the DMV within 30 days to have someone there record it.
Honestly, I don't have any problem with a per mile tax but I have a huge, huge issue with any kind of device being placed on my car. Not only is it an incredibly invasive invasion of privacy, it's also way more expensive and complex than any taxing method should be.
Re:Bad. (Score:3, Informative)
This has been a issue for quite a while because the Republican refuse the raise the gas tax even though more than 60% of Americans support raising it.
Fact: The Federal Gas tax hasn't been raised since the early 80's.
Fact: The Federal Gas tax goes into a trust fund called the Highway Trust Fund entirely devoted to transportation construction and maintenance.
Fact: The Highway Trust Fund is completely exhausted. Maintenance and construction costs now dramatically exceed what the gas tax revenue is bringing in. The additional funding is coming out of brand new debt.
Fact: The principle driver of unemployment in this country right now is the construction industry. The near destruction of the housing market caused almost the total layoff of every single construction worker. Construction accounts for nearly 10% of GDP. If all the construction workers were put back to work the economy would likely come out of recession within a year.
Fact: The last federal transportation funding bill (SAFETEA) expired 2 years ago. Congress has failed to pass a new spending bill, instead passing 6 month extensions of the existing bill.
Fact: A transportation construction project typically takes 5-6 years from concept to commitment of construction dollars. (the 5-6 years composes, planning, environmental studies and engineering)
Fact: Without firm long term commitments the states are unwilling to commit their own funds to projects where federal supplemental dollars aren't guaranteed.
Fact: We are now in a 2 year hole where no Engineering or preliminary work on projects is being done. In addition, because long term money expired 2 years ago no further engineering was done after the expiration of SAFETEA.
Fact: Without commitment of transportation moneys the construction industry cannot recover without a massive burst in home building. Neither is going to occur so expect a triple dip recession beginning in 2013.
It's going to get worse every day they delay passing a transportation funding bill and every day they refuse to raise gas taxes to fund that bill. Federal gas tax is $0.17 a gallon. You could double that and at current prices and fluctuation most people wouldn't even notice.
But feel free to keep blaming Obama for it, after all the constitution makes him responsible for funding.
Re:Bad. (Score:5, Informative)
The fuel tax already covers that nicely. Truckers are using the most expensive fuel. According to the US Department of Energy [doe.gov], both gasoline and diesel are taxed at 12% average. The average cost of regular gasoline is $3.56/gal. The average cost of diesel is $3.91/gal.
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics [bts.gov] (in 2008 numbers), the average passenger car gets 22.6mpg, and the average other 2 and 4 wheel vehicle (motorcycles, passenger trucks and SUVs) get 18.1mpg. That's average, everyone will claim "mine gets [higher|lower]".
A tractor/trailer rig gets 10mpg unloaded, or about 5 to 7mpg fully loaded. so, on a hypothetically average trip of exactly 1,000 miles, and equally average driving conditions for all involved...
Avg passenger car: Fuel: 45 gallons. Cost: $160.20 Tax: $19.22
Avg tractor/trailer Fuel: 167 gallons. Cost: $652.97 Tax: $78.36
And lets address his complaint of "In fact the (highway) road damage of one 18-wheeler is equivalent to at least 9600 cars", lets consider what the car to truck ratio is...
Again, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics [bts.gov], in 2000 (the last year this report shows any numbers), there were 133,621,420 passenger cars, 4,346,068 motorcycles, 79,084,979 passenger trucks and SUV's, and 5,926,030 other 2 axle vehicles.
So, 222,978,497 2 axle vehicles, and 2,096,619 truck/trailer combination. So 106 cars for every truck on the road. Consider that those heavy trucks spend far more miles on common routes, (i.e., interstates, state highways, etc) than on the sprawling local roads and community streets. You'll see that it doesn't matter much that they do 9600:1 damage to the highway, they are likely only driving on a very very small percentage of the overall roadways. They only have to repave an interstate once and it's repaired, so the cumulative effect does not equal a 9600:1 burden on the overall paved streets across the country.
Consider your own neighborhood. How many cars drive past your house for every heavy truck. The number probably becomes tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands to one truck.
But don't let factual statistics get in the way of cherry picking numbers to scream about the awful blight of the heavy truck. :)