WHITE HOUSE BACKS MILEAGE TAX
By CLEMENTE LISI
February 20, 2009 —
Now the Obama Administration wants motorists to go the extra mile — and pay more taxes based on how much they drive.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that he backs a plan to tax motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gas they use.
Gasoline taxes that for nearly half a century have paid for the federal share of highway and bridge construction can no longer be counted on to raise enough cash to keep the nation’s transportation system moving, LaHood said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled,” he said.
The plan has gaining ground in several states.
Governors in Idaho and Rhode Island are talking about such programs, and a North Carolina panel suggested last year that the state start charging drivers a quarter-cent for every mile as a substitute for the gas tax.
A plan in Massachusetts to use GPS chips in vehicles to charge motorists by the mile has drawn complaints from drivers who say it’s an Orwellian intrusion by government into their lives. Others say it eliminates an incentive to drive more fuel-efficient cars since gas guzzlers will be taxed at the same rate as fuel sippers.
IT’S OFFICIAL…I’M MOVING TO ENGLAND!!!!!
