The more you drive, the more they’ll tax

High-MPG cars mean less gas used, which means less tax collected. What’s a government to do?

Tax your miles driven.

‘Why Oregon lawmakers think we need a GPS-tracking mileage tax’

The plan “could serve as a model for all states to replace the gas tax.”

A vehicle miles traveled tax “is seen as more equitable since it’s based on actual road use instead of fuel burned.”

(OK; we’re in the “pay your fair share” Progressive/Democrat play book. Except --- the author of the Oregon program is a Republican.)

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/blogs/post--why-oregon-lawmakers-think-we-need-a-gps-tracking-mileage-tax

(All those EPA and Congressional “More mileage, more mileage” rules are showing one of those unforeseen consequences that come with “We need more regulation!”

(Do I have an answer? Other than “Let the market figure it out,” no. But we have sellers and we have buyers, and never the government in-between – in a closer to perfect world.)

“Oregon will use private companies to provide two different mileage-tracking technologies: basic meters that use a vehicle's odometer to log miles driven and more advanced meters that use GPS to track where cars travel and how far. Oregon officials also hope to develop a smartphone application to augment the basic meters.

“USA Today noted that Berger's bill limits who can access the mileage information and stipulates that the state and its affiliates have to destroy any location information within 30 days after using it for billing.”

(As we all know, data collected by a government for a specific program is always destroyed. About that ocean-front property …)