California replacing gas tax with mileage fees

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: hillbilly4rent

More totalitarianism from Cali.

I can't even park in front of my house without city permit what kind of # is that?

What will strip your gears is insurance companies are handing the things out in the "we will tack your driving habits to save you money" crap.

a reply to: okrian

Thats a valid argument and concern.

Perhaps get rid of gas tax and mileage tax and create more speed pass type toll lanes or converted to another type of tax?

a reply to: onequestion

I'm afraid if I give you a FLAG it'll be construed as my thinking a mileage tax is a great idea...but since it comes out of California liberal government most people will know it's ridiculous and punishing.

Have a FLAG onequestion...for reminding me WHY I'm glad I no longer live there.

The major idea is GPS that downloads once a month and they send you a bill. I just laughed WHAT IF YOU DON'T PAY THE BILL??

Of course with GPS they will be able to track you anywhere!! A WIN WIN for them

a reply to: schuyler

What they are really worried about is battery driven vehicles cutting into their prodigious gas tax revenue.

To me, that is a legitimate concern. Our gas taxes are what funds new roads and existing road repairs. There is absolutely no reason why folks driving battery-powered vehicles should not share in the collective costs of roadways. If we can not collect their fair share at the pump, then we must find other ways to do so. A mileage tax does exactly that.

a reply to: onequestion

I guess it's all perspective. I'd love for there to be permit parking in my neighborhood. Kids park around here and don't even care. There's nowhere to park. They throw their trash all over the place, stumble through here drunk trying to find their cars yelling and fighting at all hours of the night, park as if they've never parked in a city before where other cars have to fit as well, sit in their cars smoking weed, drinking and playing their radios loud late into the night (and then leave a pile of beer bottles on the curb). And as stated in my previous post, don't bother calling the cops, they won't come. As if you can even get ahold of someone calling the non-emergency police number.

originally posted by: mikell
The major idea is GPS that downloads once a month and they send you a bill. I just laughed WHAT IF YOU DON'T PAY THE BILL??

Then they will devolve you back into a goomba like in the super mario bros movie from the 90s... or just remotely shut off your car till you pay.., if it wont be the government then it will come in the form of insurance companies. Wait till registration and Insurance is no longer a sticker and is programmed into your car where as law enforcement just need to access your cars wifi signature.

originally posted by: hillbilly4rent

originally posted by: intrptr
How do they plan on doing that, "Smart Odometers"?

More than likely they will use a OBD ll style GPS. Fleet tracking on a mass scale with road checks to see if one is installed. Just saying hypothetically.

Thats cool, or bar codes on the side of cars passing through readers. I've heard that proposed to check for speed violations, if you get to the next reader quicker than the speed limit allows, you get ticketed in the mail.

People can disable GPS, harder to disable a scanner on the road side. Unless you throw mud on the tag. Maybe RFID? Hidden chips in the frame of the car like they do serial numbers.

What they really want is to monitor our whereabouts and activity every minute of every day. Everything they say or do claiming its helping us or 'making things easier' is deception to that end.

a reply to: onequestion

Why doesn't California just ration gas, water, food, electricity, etc...with taxes figured at an equal rate for all? That way, everyone pays the same amount for everything...and everyone is equal.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Oh I'm leaving

a reply to: IAMTAT

It's almost there.

This place is insane.

originally posted by: Brotherman

originally posted by: mikell
The major idea is GPS that downloads once a month and they send you a bill. I just laughed WHAT IF YOU DON'T PAY THE BILL??

Then they will devolve you back into a goomba like in the super mario bros movie from the 90s... or just remotely shut off your car till you pay.., if it wont be the government then it will come in the form of insurance companies. Wait till registration and Insurance is no longer a sticker and is programmed into your car where as law enforcement just need to access your cars wifi signature.

Thank my good choices to live in very rural areas, and drive vehicles from the late 70's, 80's and early 90's. Although, my insurance company already collects my annual mileage to help them assess my insurance rates.

a reply to: hillbilly4rent

don't know about California,but in metro Phx,we have to do a yearly emissions test,maybe they'd calculate it from that and add it to the registration fee.

a reply to: onequestion

I thought when the settlers left England and formed the United States, their greatest concern was to get away from all the taxation, the King kept imposing on the people.

However I was sadly wrong to believe that.

As our Behemoth government grows it needs as much money it can extort from it's subjects. More is not enough.

With oil prices falling all over the world the government is looking for new ways to bring in new revenue to pay for their employees working for government.

Taxation without representation is illegal in the United States, but who cares about the Constitutions, it's just a piece paper, right.

originally posted by: okrian
Hmmm. How do you feel about the fact that people who drive electric cars (a group that likely skews liberal you must admit) and use the same roads you do are paying no taxes towards the maintenance of said roads? California is at the top of the list for electric cars per capita. And it seems that according to this article road maintenance and upkeep comes from the gas tax.

Not true. My wife's Prius will run 14 mile on electric alone but she still has to buy gas. It's not as if they use electricity alone to get around.

If there weren't millions of illegal aliens in California they wouldn't have so much congestion and broken down infrastructure. But hey, they were here first, right?

originally posted by: WeDemBoyz
a reply to: schuyler

What they are really worried about is battery driven vehicles cutting into their prodigious gas tax revenue.

To me, that is a legitimate concern. Our gas taxes are what funds new roads and existing road repairs. There is absolutely no reason why folks driving battery-powered vehicles should not share in the collective costs of roadways. If we can not collect their fair share at the pump, then we must find other ways to do so. A mileage tax does exactly that.

So charge them that way. That's no reason to take 99.99% or more of all vehicles and charge THEM by mileage. Besides, if you do that you just lost the advantage of a graduated tax based on MPG.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

I'm not a legislator and I don't think any California legislator's read this but I'm going to share this idea anyway. Electric cars pay the mileage tax, gas cars and hybrids pay the gas tax.

That seems to be the most reasonable idea.

Actually, I just re-read the OP. This is an exploratory program. If it were to go into effect it would do away with the gas tax in favor of the mileage tax. No double taxation, I don't understand why anyone would be opposed to this.

a reply to: onequestion

California replacing gas tax with mileage fees. - Make no mistake, this is Agenda 21 talking.

Agenda 21 says living in houses on single plots of land is unsustainable so they want us to all move into stacks and packs (high rise blocks of flats)

Note also that Maurice Strong, the bloke behind Agenda 21 (and a multli billionaire) says that that having heating and cooling in workplace offices is unsustainable, therefore it follows that having heating and cooling in homes or flats is also unsustainable. So, don't expect the flat that you move into when the mileage tax causes to move closer to the inner city, which it is designed to do, that your flat will be fitted with heating or cooling.

Don't also be surprised if the local govt by-law says you are not allowed to install heating or cooling in your flat either.

Wanna see a model Agenda 21 state looks like? look at Singapore. Everyone, accept the elite of course, lives in a high rise.

originally posted by: onequestion
Well, California is full of crap policy and totalitarianism. The liberals out here are ruining this state.

With gas STILL at 3$ a gallon and rental and food cos one has to wonder (pun intended) what the hell is wrong with people here?

It is insane. I think we have to start speaking up. These demented politicians completely ignore the fact that we are practically paying the same prices with oil at $100 a barrel, while the price is closer to $30 now. This is some out of touch politics

originally posted by: links234
a reply to: Asktheanimals

I'm not a legislator and I don't think any California legislator's read this but I'm going to share this idea anyway. Electric cars pay the mileage tax, gas cars and hybrids pay the gas tax.

That seems to be the most reasonable idea.

Actually, I just re-read the OP. This is an exploratory program. If it were to go into effect it would do away with the gas tax in favor of the mileage tax. No double taxation, I don't understand why anyone would be opposed to this.

Because you would have to account for your mileage. With the gas tax, you just buy the gas. Nobody cares how many miles you drive--or where you drive. The "tax" is built into each gallon so it's pay as you go, and it's an automatically progressive tax that taxes bad gas mileage more than good gas mileage. A mileage tax adds unnecessary and intrusive bureaucracy.

That's why.