This story from CBS News about states mulling over taxing us by the mile.
College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas bill once topped his car payment.
“I was paying about $500 a month,” says Just.
So Just bought a fuel efficient hybrid and said goodbye to his gas-guzzling BMW.
And what kind of mileage does he get?
“The EPA estimate is 60 in the city, 51 on the highway,” says Just.
And that saves him almost $300 a month in gas. It’s great for Just but bad for the roads he’s driving on, because he also pays a lot less in gasoline taxes which fund highway projects and road repairs. As more and more hybrids hit the road, cash-strapped states are warning of rough roads ahead.
Officials in car-clogged California are so worried they may be considering a replacement for the gas tax altogether, replacing it with something called “tax by the mile.”
Seeing tax dollars dwindling, neighboring Oregon has already started road testing the idea.
“Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and it’s as simple as that,” says engineer David Kim.
Kim and his team at Oregon State University equipped a test car with a global positioning device to keep track of its mileage. Eventually, every car would need one.
As for taxing by the mile, I wouldn’t much mind. I would mind, however, being tracked by a GPS device. There’s something unsettling about that. Our privacy has been attacked enough in recent years.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to just put tracking chips in people?
Then they could assess people for walking on sidewalks, strolling on beaches, hiking trails in National Parks and National Forests, entering government buildings, running through airports, jogging in city parks, riding mass transit….
Not only that they could have health surcharges for all the time people spend in proximity to retail outlets for alcohol, tobacco and junk food.