To wit: if gas tax revenues are decreasing, stop trying to find a way to boost them. People will figure out a workaround for whatever hack you come up with, just like they did for the gas tax. So instead of this…
Oregon explores taxing miles driven, not gallons purchased to address transportation funding: http://t.co/Z1KJP0ZTp8 #PewTranspo
— Pew States (@PewStates) April 17, 2015
…governments should instead – and, gee, this is a radical notion, huh? – stop spending quite so much money. Are the roads the most important thing? They are? Great! Put road maintenance at the top, pay that off first, and then decide what the other funding priorities should be. Because obviously people and governments can’t have everything that they want. Money does not grow on trees.
No. Seriously. It doesn’t.
Moe Lane
My personal solution would be to repeal CAFE in its entirety.
Government can’t even get “tax the miles* right .. they’re wanting to use GPS for it instead of a *MUCH SIMPLER* “hey car, you’re passing a cell tower? great, what’s your odometer say? great, thanks car!” approach ..
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Mew
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p.s. Knew a guy, back in the day, who wrote code for a prototype water meter that reported this way – get it in range of a cell tower, it would say where it is, what its’ serial is, and what it’s meter was at. They thought it had a bug when one meter started reporting that it was changing locations .. then they realized it was assigned to a developer, who was moving it from one townhome to another in a development so the plumbers could do their thing…
Well, the thing about GPS reporting is that you can also use it to issue speeding tickets. Heck, with a little thought you could tell when someone just ran a red light or breezed through a stop sign. Talk about a cash cow.
Obviously a GPS reporting device could not be easily tampered with, so stolen car recovery would be easier. Other detective work also, since a continuous feed of your car location would turn up as evidence in all sorts of criminal cases. Young driver location, speed, braking etc could be monitored by parents. Cameras could flag cars as they drive by that do not have reporting GPS devices. GPS data could be used ( or easily hacked) to send you targeted advertisements based on where you frequently stop. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination
Heh. Illinois tollway transponder data has already ended up as evidence in divorce proceedings.
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I figure it’s a matter of time before the legislature get desperate enough for ca$h to “change their minds” about using transponder data to issue speeding tickets.
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Mew
Mandatory continuous GPS reporting of every car location is a real big government wet dream
Right, and I figure it’s borderline but *probably* a bridge too far.
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I will point out that traffic camera data is pretty routinely used, in accidents resulting in charges, to determine if anyone *had been* speeding ..
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So .. as long as there’s an option to buy a vehicle *without* it .. possibly signing up for some kind of yearly tax-via-license-plate or whatever .. it may slip through.
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Mew
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p.s. your cell phone is reporting your location too, eh?
“Money does not grow on trees.”
IIRC, money is made out of cotton-linen paper. Not trees.
I went and looked it up:
http://moneyfactory.gov/damagedcurrencyclaim.html
I remember back in the late 1970’s finding three dollar bills in the sand at a beach (my lawn – get off it – now). They were in very bad shape but dad took me to the local bank and I was able to turn them in for intact currency. All of the parts (more or less) were there. I wonder if a bank will do that for a few pieces of small currency these days – I was 11 then – and while three dollars doesn’t seem like much now, back then $3 could actually get you a model aircraft or ship!
A bank doesn’t lose anything with that except a little employee time, so I think they still would.