More on Oregon and GPS-tracked Gas Taxes

An anonymous reader writes "Wired has an update on Oregon's proposed replacement for their gas tax. Currently two candidates are in development, the first a GPS based system that tracks where a car goes to determine the number of miles driven. The other is a odometer-like device. Both would transmit the data to base stations periodically to determine the tax on a vehicle. There was a previous slashdot article."

Comments

Doesn't make sense to me

[(54)T-Dub]

I don't get it.

A more important reason is that GPS, which can monitor exactly where a car goes within the state and at what times, eventually could be used to implement different tax rates, according to Whitty.

Followed by:

Whitty said there will be no privacy issues because the machines are being designed to store only the number of miles traveled, not the exact locations visited.

The whole thing sound ludicrous to me. I think people would complain more about getting another bill every month more than raising the gas tax a few cents. I understand that voters have turned down an increase in the tax over the past few years, but this seems like a very stupid way to get around it. Every gas station is going to have to have one of these devices installed. Then the pump will have to be changed so that it will give the user a different price depending on if he has a device or not.

Seems like a high cost plan with lower voter approval to me.

Re:Doesn't make sense to me

[Alan Cox]

Its ludicrous for a different reason. A tax on fuel punishes the people who burn it all, a tax on distance is an invitation to people to generate more pollution.

Re:Doesn't make sense to me

[luzrek]

On top of all that you said, the suposed reason for gas taxes is to support the highway infrastructure. Road use is just about proportional to the fourth power of a vehicle's axle weight. This means that my wife's 240DL, which weights about 2500 lbs and has two axles, is doing about 1/167th the damage as a 9000lb. Expedition or other monstrous vehicle. That is a huge subsidy to the SUV owner. SUVs are already getting a subsidy under the gas tax system, because they burn about 3 times as much fuel as a smaller car, but weight much more.

point is, if they go with a milage based system, the darn well better take vehicle weight into consideration.

This is Crap

[mgrassi99]

I'd never want to "be tracked" by anyone when I drive. When do they start sending me speeding tickets because I travelled too many miles in too short a time??

Environment

[cmjensen]

Taxing miles driven? Heck no! Tax the gas used so that a person who drives a fuel efficient hybrid gets an INCENTIVE versus folks (like me) who drive gas guzzling Suburbans.

What will REALLY happen

[doublem]

You WILL get speeding tickets once this system has been 100% deployed.

You WILL face severe jail time for tampering with such devices.

There WILL be mischarges. Some people will be charged for fewer miles than they drove, some for more.

Challenging the "system" will result in being charged with Odometer tampering, as it will be your only evidence against the charges.

Of course, all this assumes they can manage to get all the cars in the state fitted with these devices.

Something tells me the voters of Oregon will be less than happy, and anyone running on a "Stop tracking where I drive" platform will get elected in a landslide.

This whole thing is either political suicide for the people responsible, or a bait and switch so the voters swallow a tax hike without complaining.

GPS Sheild

[dfn5]

Just make an aluminum-foil hat for your car. Seems easy enough to me. :-)

Truly Dumb Idea - Techno-Overkill.

[nightwing2000]

Why? If you want to collect taxes based on miles driven, do the "odometer reading at license renewal" thing. Better yet, pick a substance like say, gasoline, that is roughly proportional to distnace driven and tax it. Wow! Why use a techincal solution when a simple one works? "We don't want to raise gasoline taxes by 2 cents - the voters might get angry! No,wait, let's make them all install $100 devices with a $100 install fee and annual certification fee instead!" What happens if the power to the device dies? Would a simple blown fuse or snipped wire save you hundreds of dollars? (What about out-of-state drivers?) Will it be a criminal charge to be driving with a blown accessories fuse? Will my pocket GPS scrambler save me hundreds of dollars? Maybe that'll be an add-on feature of new radar detectors... Will the petroleum consumption police require you to fill out a form if you fail to use your car in any 3-month period, certifying that you did in fact park it? Better yet, would the GPS prove you were driving on municipal roads so Oregon has to share these revenues with the appropriate city and county governments? Can I open a shortcut across my property and get a state subsidy for it? My driveway needs repaving... maybe I can set up GPS braodcast simulator that tells any nearby vehicles they drove on my private road. Truly a "Galactically stupid" idea.

The Most Important Issue

[rossz]

The people of Oregon, in their infinite wisdom, have repeatedly rejected a gas tax increase. The government tries various methods to get around this rejection.

Let's put it another way. The people have decided the government already has enough money and refuse to give them more. The government thinking up new and innovative ways to screw citizens out of their hard earned money ignores the basic fact that they were already told no.

No means no, damn it!

Make sure taxes collected for a specific reason are spent for that reason and not put into the general fund. I bet the gasoline tax was implemented to provide the funds to maintain the roads and highways. How much is collected? How much is actually spent on road maintanence? Ask your elected officials to account for the missing money.