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Offline Parts

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Just wrong
« on: January 01, 2009, 07:52:59 PM »
Quote
The Register-Guardhttp://www.registerguard.com/
Kulongoski proposes shift from tax on gas to tax on miles driven

The Associated Press

SALEM — Gov. Ted Kulongoski says he will ask the Legislature to begin “a path to transition away from the gas tax as the central funding source for transportation” and to replace it with a mileage tax boosted by satellite technology.

A year ago, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced that it had demonstrated that a mileage tax could work.

The proposal is part of a transportation-related bill Kulongoski has filed for the upcoming session.

“As Oregonians drive less and demand more fuel-­efficient vehicles, it is increasingly important that the state find a new way, other than the gas tax, to finance our transportation system,” according to the policies he has outlined online.

Kulongoski proposes to continue the work of the special task force that came up with and tested the idea of a mileage tax to replace the gas tax, the Albany Democrat-­Herald reported Sunday.

The governor wants the task force “to partner with auto manufacturers to refine technology that would enable Oregonians to pay for the transportation system based on how many miles they drive.”

The online outline adds: “The governor is committed to ensuring that rural Oregon is not adversely affected and that privacy concerns are addressed.”

Critics had worried that the technology could be used to track where vehicles go, not just how far they travel, and that this information could be stored by the government.

In interviews with the Democrat-Herald and others, James Whitty, the Transportation Department official in charge of the project, tried to assure the public that that was not in the plans.

The task force’s final report came out in November 2007. It was based largely on a field test in which about 300 motorists in the Portland area and two service stations took part over 10 months, ending in March 2007.

A GPS-based system kept track of the in-state mileage driven by the volunteers.

When they bought fuel, a device in their vehicles was read, and they paid 1.2 cents a mile and got a refund of the state gas tax of 24 cents a gallon.

“The concept requires no transmission of vehicle travel locations,” the report said.

The report said that under the Oregon concept of the program, “ODOT would have no involvement in developing the on-vehicle devices, installing them in vehicles, maintaining them or having any other access to them except, perhaps, in situations involving tampering or similar fee evasion activities.”

Equipment for the Oregon test was developed at Oregon State University. Whitty said last year that it might take about $20 million to establish that the mileage tax is commercially viable.

Eventually, GPS devices would have to be built into cars, and fueling stations would have to be similarly equipped. The gas tax would stay in force — Kulongoski has proposed that it be raised 2 cents — for vehicles not equipped to pay the mileage tax.

Copyright © 2008 — The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA

This is some scary shit if it starts there it will spread
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Offline Callaway

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2009, 08:17:32 PM »
Yes.  It is very scary.

Why would they want to penalize people who buy more fuel-efficient cars or people who live out in the country, miles away from a town?  It makes no sense to me.
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Offline Pyraxis

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2009, 08:24:05 PM »
I agree it's scary, and clearly a move against fuel-efficient vehicles. But why would it penalize people who live in the country? They'd still have to do the same amount of driving, whether it was taxed by the gallon or the mile.
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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #3 on: January 01, 2009, 08:28:12 PM »
When the government thought about introducing a scheme like that over here 3 million signed a petiton against it and it was scrapped. Its a shame really - I thought it was a really good idea, provided they implemented it correctly.
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Offline ProfessorFarnsworth

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #4 on: January 01, 2009, 08:40:41 PM »
This is scary indeed, I agree with the critics and then some that it sounds like a secret means to track people's driving in reality. What's more insulting is that you're paying for it too in a tax.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2009, 08:47:04 PM by Nexus »
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Morality can be extrapolated from these meanings to make these two commandments of godless morality: 1). Be in harmony with one another and 2). Care for the environment.

Offline Peter

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #5 on: January 01, 2009, 09:57:47 PM »
This is completely bone-headed.  A person who drives for 20km in a small, fuel-efficient car not only has a smaller environmental impact and uses up less of the limited and dwindling oil reserves, but also causes vastly less erosion of the roads than a person who drives the same distance in a large SUV.  'Distance driven' is a terrible metric to base a tax on; 'fuel consumed' is much better, since it roughly correlates with the weight of the vehicle multiplied by the distance driven, and thus the damage caused to the road surface, it provides an additional incentive to conserve a limited resource, the consumption of which is damaging to the environment and it even takes into account infrastructure pressure from congestion, since fuel efficiency is lower in congested conditions.
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Offline Peter

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #6 on: January 01, 2009, 10:09:41 PM »
Quote from: Pyraxis on January 01, 2009, 08:24:05 PM
I agree it's scary, and clearly a move against fuel-efficient vehicles. But why would it penalize people who live in the country? They'd still have to do the same amount of driving, whether it was taxed by the gallon or the mile.

If it's taxed by the gallon, they can reduce the impact of the tax by driving a more efficient vehicle, whereas if it's taxed by the mile, their options are more limited, since changing a car is easier than changing a job or a house.  Also, although people in the country need to travel further than people in a town or city, they use less fuel per mile due to driving more on open roads rather than stop-and-start city traffic, and this change would eliminate that advantage.
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14:10 - Moarskrillex42: She said something about knowing why I wanted to move to Glasgow when she came in. She plopped down on my bed and told me to go ahead and open it for her.

14:11 - Peter5930: So, she thought I was your lover and that I was sending you a box full of sex toys, and that you wanted to move to Glasgow to be with me?

Offline punkdrew

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #7 on: January 02, 2009, 12:07:58 AM »
YOU ARE FREE TO DO AS WE TELL YOU! YOU ARE FREE TO DO AS WE TELL YOU!

This is Big Brother watching you watching telescreen.
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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #8 on: January 02, 2009, 02:54:38 AM »
WAR IS PEACE!

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY!

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH!

SURVEILLANCE IS INTEGRITY!
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TheoK

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #9 on: January 02, 2009, 03:04:12 AM »
IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD! YOU CAN'T BE TRUSTED WITH DANGEROUS THINGS LIKE GUNS!

OR CARS!

OR ALCOHOL!

OR TOBACCO!

OR FIRECRACKERS!

OR FAT FOOD!

OR BICYCLES!

OR PLASTIC BAGS!

OR CHEWING GUM!

OR CANDY!

OR MATCHES!



BIG BROTHER KNOWS BEST AND BIG BROTHER LOVES YOU!
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Offline Parts

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #10 on: January 02, 2009, 06:49:38 AM »
It's not just the issue of the tax.  They will know where you are always.  In the NYC region the have metro card for the tolls it was started as an easy quick way to pay them but now the records are used in court ad police investigations
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"Eat it up.  Wear it out.  Make it do or do without." 

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TheoK

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #11 on: January 02, 2009, 07:13:22 AM »
It's time to revolt. You have guns in the USA but you don't do anything.
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TheoK

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #12 on: January 02, 2009, 07:17:15 AM »
The ones who even come up with such proposals should be killed, so that they'd see that the people don't tolerate to be slaves.
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Offline Callaway

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #13 on: January 02, 2009, 07:45:05 AM »
Quote from: PARTS on January 02, 2009, 06:49:38 AM
It's not just the issue of the tax.  They will know where you are always.  In the NYC region the have metro card for the tolls it was started as an easy quick way to pay them but now the records are used in court ad police investigations

This is a very good point. 

They use cell phones to pinpoint people's general locations for criminal investigations as well.  If your cell phone is on, even if you aren't talking on it, its signal bounces off the nearest cell phone towers.  So if you said you were home when a crime happened somewhere else but your cell phone signal bounced off a tower close to the crime scene at the time the crime happened, they could see that you were lying.
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TheoK

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Re: Just wrong
« Reply #14 on: January 02, 2009, 07:47:51 AM »
Why, why, why are people just accepting this?
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