Tax, Tax, Tax, Remove Your Freedom & Your Rights

The federal CBO wants to tax your vehicle mileage.

More taxes. Less freedom.

From The Hill:

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week released a report that said taxing people based on how many miles they drive is a possible option for raising new revenues and that these taxes could be used to offset the costs of highway maintenance at a time when federal funds are short.

The report discussed the proposal in great detail, including the development of technology that would allow total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to be tracked, reported and taxed, as well as the pros and cons of mandating the installation of this technology in all vehicles.

You'll particularly appreciate this part:

Conrad said in response that federal funds are tight, and in asking for recommendations on how to raise that money, he noted the possibility of a VMT tax as a way to solve the problem of collecting less in taxes as people move to more fuel-efficient vehicles.

"Do we do gas tax?" Conrad asked. "Do we move to some kind of an assessment that is based on how many miles vehicles go, so that we capture revenue from those who are going to be using the roads who aren't going to be paying any gas tax, or very little, with hybrids and electric cars?"

Any other concerns? Certainly:

On how to implement the idea, CBO said it is unclear how much it would cost to "install metering equipment in all of the nation's cars and trucks."

"Having the devices installed as original equipment under a mandate to vehicle manufacturers would be relatively inexpensive but could lead to a long transition; requiring vehicles to be retrofitted with the devices could be faster but much more costly, and the equipment could be more susceptible to tampering than factory-installed equipment might be," CBO said.

The report added that VMT taxes could be tracked and even collected at filling stations. "If VMT taxes were collected at the pump, each time fuel was purchased, information would be sent from a device in the vehicle to a device at the filling station," it said.

CBO also suggested different VMT tax rates might be assessed to different vehicles because heavier vehicles do more road damage, and rates might change depending on whether miles are driven at peak use times or during less congested hours.

CBO did acknowledge that privacy concerns may be a hurdle to implementing a VMT tax because electronic tracking of miles driven might provide too much personal information to the government. However, CBO noted that some have proposed restricting the information that would be transmitted to the government.

In essence: because we've finally pushed you into hybrids, it's not fair that taxes on gasoline are faltering (even though you already pay 47+ cents per gallon in federal taxes); we need another way to fleece the taxpayer, another strata of taxation. It's not enough that you already pay for roads via other taxes -- now we need to turn you upside down, charge you for mileage and then install intrusive devices on your vehicle.

What's next? GPS on your conveyances, so that the government can know where you are at all times? And then what of insurance companies? You think they're going to sit idly by whilst the government collects mileage fees without them? Oh no, think again. The insurance industry will jump on the mileage issue with both feet and that's how you'll be charged in addition to your deductible, etc.

Fleecing you for more cash, demanding more taxes, losing more of your freedoms, being monitored in terms of time, place and distance by your federal government -- what's not to love about that?

BZ