Government to Track Cars for Gas Tax
May 5, 2011, Submitted by: Ken TweetThe government wants to track all of your vehicles, all of the time, everywhere.
It was reported today by ‘The Hill’ 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 report of the floated plan did not contain details about how they would go about tracking your miles driven, such as with a GPS type tracker or otherwise, but it did say that the VMT tax (vehicle miles traveled) could be tracked by and then paid automatically at filling stations.
The White House said that this bill proposal is at an early draft stage and is not yet supported by the administration.
The tax would apparently be purposed as a way to increase federal highway revenues, and the administration is apparently aware of the controversial nature of the way the tax would be collected.
The bill would likely create a ‘Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office’.
Again, although it is unclear regarding the technical implementation of such a taxation system, one thing seemingly for sure is that it could and would likely be designed such that you will not be able to purchase gasoline without ‘the system’ in place. One question is, will the system track your location as well, or will it be tied only to the odometer electronics. Or, what about existing vehicles… etc…
So, as the United States government continues to spend money like there is no tomorrow, they evidently wish to keep their party going by raising our taxes and perhaps tracking our movements. A runaway government out of control. Let’s see if the American people continue to bend over and take it…
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Okay this is the stupidest shite I’ve ever heard. the white house employees are the ones who need cutbacks and lowered earnings. I hope Americans stick together and fight for this not to happen. y the hell should we have to pay taxes to drive our car. its bad enough we already do for tags. president obama does not know what he is doing and is only hurting us more.
A similar system is operational in Germany for commercial traffic (transport trucks).
In the Netherlands, despite the fact that the entire infrastructure including the ports which would contain the credit card readers was already installed, the introduction was cancelled when a new cabinet came to office.
In Belgium a similar system will be introduced short term.
The Dutch rejected the proposal based on 2 arguments:
1. privacy aspects because the system is also able to track individuals
2. unreasonable costs because the infra structure is already payed for with tax money and existing road taxes which would have been very unreasonable.
It serves to lay hands on the Dutch casus in detail because it contains all the arguments to fight this blatant theft of public money.
Fight it with all your might and please… get another President because this one is a cheat and a hack.
@R. de Haan You’re right. We already pay a vehicle mileage tax. The gasoline tax. The more you drive, the more you pay!!!!!! Did I miss something somewhere? Or are they just too embarrassed to raise the gas tax. That’s why they don’t want the tax code simplified. They’re afraid that if we really knew how much we were being taxed, in an easy to see manner, that we might cut their purse strings and put them out of office.
Makes sense to me. Only pay what you use. What is more conservative and libertarian than that? The fact they have to track you is a side effect of that. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
And it’s a socialist idea to think that we can continue funding highway renovation and upgrade and maintenance on dwindling gas taxes (since cars are getting more efficient). I want nice highways, and I’m willing to pay to continue using them. It’s too bad many others would rather have a nanny state handout by people who don’t use them as often to subsidize their usage of them.
@Esker, I believe you may be missing the point. That is, why should there be an additional tax… We already pay many built-in gasoline taxes which are supposed to go towards roads and highway. This is yet another example of spend-spend-spend. If the U.S. government were a business, the executives and directors thereof would have been fired a very long time ago for their spending and massive deficit build-up. The business, if it were a business, would be bankrupt.
The fact that the U.S. dollar is still the ‘reserve’ currency and the fact that the Fed can print as much paper money as they want, is the only thing keeping the U.S. from insolvency.
The 2nd point is one that is close to the hearts of many people, including Libertarian’s, that is privacy. Tracking one’s every move and location goes way beyond the comfort zone of many people. Instead of tracking where and how much people are driving, simply increase the amount of taxes on a gallon of gasoline. Same result… more money for them.
We have a system in New Zealand similar to this. Petrol is taxed at the pump, but diesel is not, since a lot of diesel is used in industrial machines (generators etc), in ships and on farm vehicles. All road vehicles (cars, trucks etc) using diesel must by law have a hubodometer attached to a wheel hub, measuring distance travelled. (Truck and trailer units have 2). The Road User Charges are levied on a per kilometre basis. Drivers must buy “Kilometres” in advance. There are penalties if you are caught driving without a valid hubodometer or tampering with it, and Road User Charges are different prices for different classes of vehicle. Cars are a lot cheaper than large trucks, as they do less damage to our roads. A current RUC label must be displayed on a car or truck windscreen, and the hubodometer serial number is tagged to the vehicle, so you can’t switch them.
For example, a normal family car which is diesel powered has a hubodometer fitted to one of the rear wheels, and the driver regularly buys mileage topups (usually in blocks of 2000 km at a time). Diesel currently costs around $1.64 per litre, plus Road User Charges of 2 cents per kilometre. Petrol has just hit $2.22, and has all its tax included. Depending on how efficient your car is, this works out about the same price either way (thus negating the argument that diesel is cheaper)
It seems a reasonable way of making sure diesel road vehicles pay their share of road costs, but avoids charging non-road users of diesel. This is a reasonably simple system, tracks distance travelled but not where, and is pretty easy to police. The only hassle I can see is that you can’t pay for KMs at the service station – you have to go to a Post Office or agency who have the fancy printers for the labels. And of course you are paying in advance.
Hopefully the US Govt will implement something along these lines?? I hope I’ve explained the system so it makes sense!
@Kiwigirl No such confusion here with diesel vehicles. We don’t need wheelometers. We just tax all diesel on the road and make the farmers go to special stations to buy it, or have it delivered to a farm and put into a farm storage tank. If you go to the farm fuel stations you have to have a farm vehicle tag to put the untaxed fuel into it or else it has to go into a separate non-vehicle tank. It also has a dye in it and if found in a non-farm vehicle there is a pretty hefty fine. The average citizen doesn’t want to put up with all that Bravo Sierra, run the risk of a large fine and use multiple containers to double transfer the fuel, it’s a PITA. No extra trips to the post office for us. I hope I’ve explained the system so it makes sense. ;-}
compared to the monsanto stuff en the 50 bill, this is chicken s***
If the Americans couldn’t fight that, they will have no chance with this.
There has been no privacy for anyone for a long time, so what the heck.
GPS can’t even give me the right directions so how is it suppose to track my mileage correctly
Taxing people by how many miles they drive puts penalties on those that have efficient automobiles and does not give an incentive to people to try to get better gas mileage. Is this not what everyone is trying to do, save energy? Someone that gets 50 miles to the gallon pays the same tax as someone that gets 10 miles to the gallon and drives the same distance. True that someone that buys more gas will pay more taxes at the pump. Why though should they pay the same mileage tax for a vechicle that is eating up the planet’s resources? It is not all about money, it is also about rational use of resources. If there is a desperate need for highway funds then raise the fuel tax and make those that have these gas guzzling vechicles that are gobbling up the last oil and helping to further pollute and poison the environment pay for it. Don’t make those that are trying to be responsible with fuel efficient cars suffer.
Besides this, tracking someone brings up the possibilities of computer viruses and those criminals tapping into your privacy, and the fact of mistakes being made. What happens if the computer says that you owe some amount that is not correct like thousands of dollars and you cannot pay it? Does your car stop, or you are not allowed to get fuel? Too many problems with something like this.
@Be informed The gas tax is already a vehicle mileage tax. If you have a 50 mpg vehicle you will pay less tax by buying less gas per mile traveled! If you have a 10 mpg vehicle, well that’s got to pull a strong vacuum and you will pay more tax per mile traveled. The somewhat obvious point, is that the gas tax is the same thing as, or is a self generating vehicle mileage tax, depending on how you want to look at it. The govt. just wants tax systems to be complicated so that, we the people, can’t figure out via what method the continual helical body entry will take place.
You do realize, folks, that it’s trivially easy to tamper with such a device unless it also stores tracks. That is, exactly where you drove, not just how far. And that tampering with such a device would be ridiculously profitable and, if tied to you via your fill-ups, would be effectively anonymous, which would make cheating impossible to prosecute.
Therefore, that couldn’t be done. Therefore, the unit’s identity would have to be tied to you, and the path you traveled would have to be stored and maintained in order to validate that you hadn’t cheated.
Aluminum foil has many interesting uses….
Tom Tom have been collecting individuals GPS location data for years and selling it to Government and private instrumentalities.
Ron De H will also tell you that Tom Tom have been taken to court in Holland?? for selling private data.
Then you have Apple and Android cell phones down loading GPS data, Blackberry’s downloading sensitive data, Google tracking, Facebook tracking etc etc etc
Modern tracking technology – who needs it?
Even Osama Bin L. was smart enough not to have a telephone, broadband or satellite data connection – how long did he get away with being isolated? (years?)
Well it might decrease our dependency to oil. Would we rather wean ourselves off gradually, or go cold-turkey?
But I’d be surprised if that was their goal – IMO, they’re just worried about losing tax dollars if electric cars become more common.
This is just another way for the politicians to collect money to pay for all their pet projects and for their early retirement. No matter how much money they collect from crazy ass ideas like this and gasoline taxes, it’s never enough to suit the politicians.
As far as gasoline use, how would this decrease use? Would you stop driving to work? What happens if you have to drive somewhere to see a relative in a hospital, or go to a wedding?
Don’t forget that 50% of all oil/fuel used in the USA goes to the airline industry. It’s not car drivers using up all the fuel. It’s airlines, semis, power plants, construction equipment, cruise ships, etc.
This plan sounds like something the UN and it’s New World Order plans.