Sadly, this is not soapbox, this is actual news.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/827473.html

12/13/2007 2:43:55 PM

Big Brother is watching my odometer like buzzard to fallen elk

12/13/2007 2:48:17 PM

Quote :

"Each month, they will receive make-believe bills showing what federal, state and local taxes they would owe if they were taxed by the mile."

lol

i bet someone will think its real and freak out

12/13/2007 2:48:35 PM

Quote :

"The $16.5 million Road User Charge Study will enlist 2,700 drivers in six states to determine whether Americans would accept the idea of paying by the mile, instead of by the gallon. The 21st Century Transportation Committee, a statewide advisory panel, was briefed Wednesday on the mileage tax study and on new technology that will make it easier in coming years to collect highway tolls "

Some of us can in fact, read.
I said wants to, I didn't say was *going* to. Obviously it's still in testing. Some of us still in fact, care and would rather people know about it before decisions are made whether it will happen or not.

[Edited on December 13, 2007 at 2:53 PM. Reason : .]

12/13/2007 2:52:44 PM

Quote :

"To protect your privacy, the on-board computer stores only the total taxes owed to each government jurisdiction. It does not record travel times and routes."

12/13/2007 2:55:18 PM

^ If you think that's protection, well. ok then. I didn't put this in soap box so I wont start that argument.

12/13/2007 3:01:26 PM

I think the whole idea is pretty gay, at some point however there will be enough alternative fuel cars on the road that gas taxes are not going to be the way to pay for road construction.

I don't think GPS's are either. The state already records your odometer at every inspection. That would be a good way to find out how many miles a vehicle had been driven and would not require a bunch of new equipment.

12/13/2007 3:04:55 PM

Quote :

"Each car and truck is assigned to a vehicle class that determined the per-mile tax rate. Governments might decide, for example, to set the highest rates for heavy trucks -- and the lowest for low-polluting and alternative-fuel cars."

A tax that charges more for people with lower mpg?!?! Brilliant!

O WAIT. The current tax already does that. Way to waste 16 million on a tax that could potentially waste more money and have absolutely no benefit.

12/13/2007 3:09:10 PM

Quote :

"The $16.5 million Road User Charge Study "

how about trimming the fat and keeping the damn taxes in check....NC already has one of, if not the highest gas tax in the nation.....

12/13/2007 3:11:51 PM

they should work on synching the stoplights according to traffic flow

smoothing out all that stop and go would do gas mileage a lot of good

12/13/2007 7:03:54 PM

ABSOLUTLY FUCKING REDICULOUS

12/13/2007 7:49:08 PM

Nice to see the good ole government acting the way they always act...

Adopt a new, massive, unneeded program where the overhead to run said program costs more than the taxes it brings in. Then raise other non-related taxes to make up the difference.

12/13/2007 8:06:56 PM

you guys don't seem to understand

this would effectively LOWER driving taxes in most, if not all, areas of NC.

local governments can set the taxes they'd like to charge for driving in their municipalities.

the gas tax would go away.

and str8bacardi, the GPS is necessary to determine WHERE you're driving so the appropriate tax is enforced.

also: hummers get like 7mpg, a 18 wheeler also gets around this same amount. a tractor trailer, however, does much more damage to roadways than a hummer does since it's way heavier. this tax would take this into consideration, and also offer the deepest discounts to users of alternative fuel.

i really don't see where this is a bad idea at all. i plan on participating in the study.

12/13/2007 8:31:45 PM

^The one thing you left out of the equation is that it would more than likely be supplemental to the gas tax. But I figure you believe the lawmakers when they say the lottery money won't supplant money that is already budgeted for schools, that they'll take down the toll booth when the road is paid for, etc.

Plus in some ways it can be much worse. Let's make up some numbers:

10mpg Hummer: 10 cents per mile. 30 mile commute = $3 tax.
30mpg Honda: 10 cents per mile. 30 mile commute = $3 tax.

Current system $1 per gallon tax
10mpg Hummer: 30 mile commute = $3 tax.
30mpg Honda: 30 mile commute =$1 tax.

I WANT the people that are consuming more of the world's resources to actually pay for them. Sure, they are still buying more gallons of gas and paying more that way, but no sense in giving them a tax break.



[Edited on December 13, 2007 at 9:08 PM. Reason : -]

12/13/2007 8:41:47 PM

Quote :

"10mpg Hummer: 10 cents per mile. 30 mile commute = $3 tax. 30mpg Honda: 10 cents per mile. 30 mile commute = $3 tax. Current system $1 per gallon tax 10mpg Hummer: 30 mile commute = $3 tax. 30mpg Honda: 30 mile commute =$1 tax."

the hummer would be charged at a higher tax rate than the honda, as it would be in a different class. they would pay MORE than the honda would, not even the same.

also, the entire reason this was created was to REPLACE the gas tax, as it won't work with alternative fuel sources. this would in no way supplement the taxes already placed on gas unless they were first reduced.

12/13/2007 9:26:10 PM

Auto manufacturers would find a loophole in the classification system within 5 years.

12/13/2007 9:54:24 PM

I drive 13 miles a day -
Go for it!

12/13/2007 10:17:28 PM

Quote :

"That would be a good way to find out how many miles a vehicle had been driven and would not require a bunch of new equipment"

haha... that's my ideal solution. i promise my odometer won't magically change just before inspection time

and I promise I don't have the equipment to do 95% of cars odometers on the road today

12/13/2007 10:33:36 PM

well fortunately there are no federal gas taxes, and also this is easily applied to out of state cars, and it's not like this could ever be easily abused or hacked since it is electronic, all in all a great idea. Oh and I trust NC-state government to lower taxes, HA! We are one of THREE states which has to pay sales tax on internet purchases. THREE STATES and this is one of them, good job state government, way to milk every last once you can out of NC to pay for your cronies and pet self-aggrandizing projects. 10% approval of toll roads? Who cares, they know better, its not like the state government is there to serve the citizens of NC as a whole. Well, what can I blame the state gov anyway, I have to blame the citizens who kept Jim Black and his cronies in office even after all the happenings of recent years. Its no surprise they act w/o accountability when the population is too lazy to figure out what is going on and demand change. End Rant.

12/14/2007 1:59:57 AM

Quote :

"the hummer would be charged at a higher tax rate than the honda, as it would be in a different class. they would pay MORE than the honda would, not even the same."

Ok, I went back and saw this on the side of the article:

Quote :

"Each car and truck is assigned to a vehicle class that determined the per-mile tax rate. Governments might decide, for example, to set the highest rates for heavy trucks -- and the lowest for low-polluting and alternative-fuel cars."

Quote :

"also, the entire reason this was created was to REPLACE the gas tax, as it won't work with alternative fuel sources. this would in no way supplement the taxes already placed on gas unless they were first reduced."

I can't actually bring myself to believe this.

I guess they will have some kind of system where there are tax and non-tax pumps so they can accommodate everyone driving cars that haven't been fitted with a GPS system yet? Maybe the same pumps, but you can enter a validation code to get the non-taxed rate? Maybe they'll just double tax everyone in the interim and just forget to do away with that pesky gas tax at the end of the day?

[Edited on December 14, 2007 at 7:29 AM. Reason : -]

12/14/2007 7:27:17 AM

http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/14/study-to-equip-cars-with-tracking-hardware-send-testers-faux-bi/

12/14/2007 10:23:46 AM

Why is the University of Iowa recruiting North Carolina residents that drive in North Carolina? They can't test this in Iowa?

12/14/2007 10:37:18 AM

If you do some reading on this, it's a nationwide study with more than half of dozen states participating that is 10 years in the making.

12/14/2007 11:17:50 AM

id mount that shit on my bicycle.


course that thing hasnt moved in 3 years so that might not work so good.

12/14/2007 12:40:24 PM

wonder who is going to pay the ultimate cost for having the tracker installed, and repair if it breaks?.....

12/14/2007 2:22:02 PM

Quote :

"The state already records your odometer at every inspection. That would be a good way to find out how many miles a vehicle had been driven and would not require a bunch of new equipment."

Quote :

"The state already records your odometer at every inspection. That would be a good way to find out how many miles a vehicle had been driven and would not require a bunch of new equipment."

Quote :

"The state already records your odometer at every inspection. That would be a good way to find out how many miles a vehicle had been driven and would not require a bunch of new equipment."

Quote :

"The state already records your odometer at every inspection. That would be a good way to find out how many miles a vehicle had been driven and would not require a bunch of new equipment."

12/14/2007 2:23:12 PM

duh....

you already have a black box similar to what airplanes have built into your car.

12/14/2007 2:23:59 PM

Quote :

"We are one of THREE states which "has to" pay sales tax on internet purchases"

12/14/2007 2:48:21 PM

awesome i can subsidize materialistic stupid fucking soccer moms to driver their Yukon's around town since we'll both pay the same tax.

Once again the middle class gets the squeeze. Poor people get to ride the gov't subsidized busses and the wealthy get a tax "cut" since they can pay less in gas taxes.

12/14/2007 4:10:08 PM

^ HUR - how does either a gas tax or driving/GPS tax affect middle vs upper class differently?

I'm not seeing it. *confused*

12/14/2007 4:21:34 PM

Quote :

"Together Federal and State excise taxes on fuel account for an average cost of approximately 62 cents per gallon. "

So I drove about 20,000 miles last year, at about 23.5 mpg, so i used about 850 gallons of gas I think. Just using that nationwide $.62, I paid about $527 in gas taxes. But since NC has a higher gas tax than most, I probably paid more. I'd participate just to find out if I would end up paying more or less..

12/14/2007 4:28:46 PM

I just don't want a gov. gps in my damned vehicle

12/14/2007 4:39:06 PM

this is the worst idea ever.

12/14/2007 4:42:15 PM

Quote :

"The state already records your odometer at every inspection. That would be a good way to find out how many miles a vehicle had been driven and would not require a bunch of new equipment."

Except they would probably want to collect the tax more often than once per year.

12/14/2007 9:48:27 PM