Harmor wrote:
Why not each time you register your car you pay taxes on the miles driven and then get refunded the taxes you paid already?
I.e. Let say in a year you drive 12,000 miles. You have a Prius and get 40mpg, thus use 300 gallons (12000m/ 40mpg) of gas.
Lets say the state's gas tax is $0.25/gallon...so you paid $75 (300 gal * $0.25/gal) in gas tax.
@ $0.012 / mile driven you owe the state $144. However you already paid $75 in gas so you pay an extra $69 in your registration.
Now the same as above but you drive an SUV that gets 20mpg. You would have paid $150 in gas taxes and thus have a $6 refund when you register your SUV.
Now the problem is how do you keep track of the gas you paid at the pump? When you pump gas do you have to show your Driver's license and that is recorded and sent to the state? Pretty simple solution really because Costo, a United State discount retailer, has a membership card that you have to swipe before being allowed to pump gas.
Now if you decide NOT to swipe your driver's license does that mean you have to pay x2 the normal gas tax?
The above solution does NOT require you put a GPS unit into every car, but has the added expense of retrofitting all gas stations to be able to swipe drivers licenses.
I understand the principle of this, but you have to consider the Big Brother aspects of this. Your system or the one being proposed by the article is well suited for the government to track your movements. The GPS system is more intrusive, but the driver's license is still big brotherish.
Now, I know that the private sector can essentially do the same thing when you use your credit card at pumps, but at least with the current system, you have the choice of staying discrete. You can always pay cash at the pumps without using an ID of any sort.
Personally, I just don't like the idea of having the government being able to track my every movement.
Granted, there is a way they can already do that and more with many new cars. OnStar comes standard with many vehicles now -- mine included. I have mine disabled, but for the ones that are enabled, this gives the government the ability to track your movements (if they happen to use things like FISA to their advantage) and can even disable your starter (since this is a function that OnStar can do if your car gets stolen).
Overall, this entire pay with your ID seems like a subtle way for the government to be more intrusive under the guise of being environmentally friendly.
