Another goody buried in Biden's kill America bill

https://newschannel9.com/news/...ot-program-proposal#

If Tennessee's general assembly does anything more than listen politely and send them on their way, I pray they're all voted out next election.

Well your EV won't save you from this one...

State governments have been trying this for a long, long time. Michigan tried it 15 years ago or so. It didn't happen because they couldn't figure a way at the time to implement it. But now you have the Feds involved.

Its another level of control and the libs won't ever stop until they have it. It checks all the boxes... Good for "climate change", punish rural (conservative) citizens for living outside cities they control, control where you drive and track where you go.

So you pay less with the mileage in taxes, well, governments are not going to stand for less revenue, they will make it up elsewhere.

Baruch Feigenbaum with The Reason Foundation says this pilot program is already implemented in 20 states.

"We do have evidence from the pilots that rural residents pay 10-20% less with a mileage based user fee than with a gas tax," says Feigenbaum.
Senator Becky Duncan Massey says she’s participated in one of these pilot programs.


GPS in your car provided by the government, how would that not be a privacy problem for people, then again tons put the monitor device in from insurance companies to get "lower rates"

Amazing how many US citizens will give up privacy for a dollar... or potential dollar off.



"They have monitors in there that just look at the mileage and they have monitors with GPS, which is the one I did," says Senator Massey.
But Gilliam feels that having a monitor would be a breach in privacy.

"That's my personal car. They don't need to put a GPS on it for the government," says Gilliam.

quote:

But Gilliam feels that having a monitor would be a breach in privacy.

"That's my personal car. They don't need to put a GPS on it for the government," says Gilliam.

Exactly. We're citizens not subjects. The gov't is supposed to work for us.

Question: If IIJA requires this sort of program, then what's the point of Tennessee enacting one of their own?
Answer: Because the IIJA program would generate revenue for the feds, not the state. And God forbid the state should lose out on an opportunity for more tax revenue.

So you wind up with both a federal per-mile tax AND a state per-mile tax. Would both the feds and Tennessee drop their respective gas taxes if these new programs go ahead? What about counties and cities that also impose gas taxes? Rhetorical question.

Beware of politicians offering to "trade" tax A for tax B. I saw this several times during the 40+ years that I lived in Oregon. Oregon is one of the few states that does not have a sales tax. The gov't wants one, in the worst way. But they're not willing to give anything up to get it, so the voters keep shooting it down (the state constitution requires voter approval for any new taxes, so the Dem supermajority in the legislature can't just shove it down their throats). The discussion leading up to the election goes like this:

Gov't: "We would like you the voters to approve a 5% sales tax."
Voters: "Go fuck yourself."
Gov't: "Wait a minute, hold on. Maybe we can make a deal?"
Voters: "OK, how about you drop the state income tax in exchange for the sales tax?"
Gov't: "Weeeeeeeeeeeeelll, how about if we just reduce the income tax rates a bunch?"
Voters: "Sure, and you swear you'll never try to bump the rates back up again? Go fuck yourself."

So it gets voted down. Although with the lefties increasingly taking over in Oregon, I won't be surprised if it passes the next time they try it. Neither would I be surprised if a per-mile-driven tax gets approved, either with or without elimination of the state gas tax. They (the state) were actually talking about a similar "voluntary" pilot program a couple years ago, but I'm not sure what the status of it is now.

Of course the feds have no such requirement for voter approval of new taxes, and we all know they have absolutely no qualms about shoving one down our throats.

I could get behind this, but going about it in a different way. Dump the gas taxes, base the HWY tax on the vehicle mileage. I know all states don’t have vehicle inspections, but we do in NC. Each year, your mileage is documented at the inspection - pay based on that without any need for GPS tracking.

^^^
But how would the government know what you’re doing, and where you’re going? They wouldn’t be happy with this approach.

Control is the goal.

quote:

"We do have evidence from the pilots that rural residents pay 10-20% less with a mileage based user fee than with a gas tax," says Feigenbaum.

I’d like to see the numbers behind this.

Rural folks have to drive more to get places. So I am curious how they are getting to this conclusion.

When I lived in a rural area I drove 120 miles round trip to work because there were no jobs where I lived. I was doing it in a 70 429 LTD and gas was high in the 80s. We would have starved to death…

Insurance company trackers to gauge possible good driver discounts are voluntary and agreed to by the driver.

I can get behind the idea of EV and hybrids paying a mileage tax because right now, their road usage is being subsidized by diesel and gas vehicles and if they use the road, the burden to maintain the roads needs to be shared by all who use them.

The question, of course, is how to keep track of the mileage. GPS is a non-starter however government will push for it. Recall that starting in the 2025 (I think?) MY, vehicles will have to come with the feature/ability to have their cars disabled remotely so government will have access to your future car.

For existing ones, having the test or inspection center record your mileage as part of the registration renewal price makes sense but government needs to reduce or eliminate the gas tax.

Vehicles who are from out of state, such as truckers or vacationing people will have to be dealt with in another way that has to be figured out, so long as it doesn't involve GPS information. I don't see truckers out of state truckers setting up shop in CA to do business here to avoid gas or mileage taxes. Fuel is the most expensive here and we have smog requirements that all trucks will have to meet.

If they drop fuel taxes completely AND factor in vehicle weight I'm all in for this type of program. Because I live in a state where the road damage is caused by heavy vehicles. Fact. Michigan will allow 180.000 Tractor Trailer rigs on our roads and I have seen these monsters using residential streets when a new housing complex is put up. Which means a formerly smooth street is now paved with cracked concrete and the damned developer doesn't have to pay a nickel.

Then you have the coming wave of electric SUV's. The electric Hummer is claimed to have a curb weight of 9000 lbs. which may sound OK but most residential streets are built for a 12,000 max vehicle weight. That Hummer will do damage to residential streets and it will probably crack any home driveway it's parked on.

Now, in my case I would make out like a bandit if weight were factored in, my Fiesta ST weighs in at 2720 lbs. and if I stay out of the turbo in the summer I can actually get 37 mpg in city driving. I will also note that I am not the least bit fond of all the monster SUV's and trucks so popular today. So I don't mind a bit if they are punished for their gluttony. I'm even mean enough that if some monster driver complains about fuel cost I'll tell him that my 20 dollar fillup will provide me with 440 miles of driving just to rub it in a bit. Yeah it is an exaggeration but not a huge one and I do so enjoy digging the needle in for some glutton driving a crew cab dually with a totally unblemished bed.