I had never heard of a Driver User
Fee, or vehicle mileage tax before until I found out through some friends who
are politically active here in Michigan that our Governor was considering
implementing such a tax on us. Apparently the .6% sales tax that we get slapped
on top of our gas tax just isn't enough to cover the roads. Admittedly I was a
little confused about what exactly a mileage tax was and how exactly the
government would go keep track of the miles I drive and the roads I drive on.
Naïve of me, I know.
A vehicle mileage tax is just that,
a tax on the miles you drive. This money supposedly goes to help maintain the
roads. Seems legit right? I mean we use the roads and particularly here in
Michigan the winter weather darn near destroys them every year! So what’s the
big deal with paying a tax that will help keep the roads fixed up and make them
safer?
The Rand Corporation, in their
document “Mileage-based user fees for transportation funding. A primer for
state and local decision makers” claims “the federal government and most states
levy fuel taxes on a cents-per-gallon basis, so real revenues will inevitably
decline unless the per-gallon tax rates are periodically increased to offset
the effects of both inflation and improved fuel economy” and with the subject
of gas price increases being a touchy one, most state and government officials
rarely want to go there. Rand Corporation also points out that with the
increase in fuel economic and alternative fuel cars the issues related to per-gallon
taxes will become more of an issue. That’s right, alternative fuel vehicles are
taking money away from the roads.
I
personally see a few issues with this. Obviously there is the issue of yet
another tax but what bothers me most is at its heart, Vehicle Mileage Taxes
seem like one more way for the government to monitor our every move and push us
into a closed in society where we have practically no anonymity.
So how would a tax strip away our
privacy? In order for the states to properly tax our mileage they would need to
know how much we drive and on what roads (since the taxes may vary depending on
what county or road you’re on). There are a few different ways states have been
looking at regarding this. The favored one appearing to be a GPS mileage meter
that is placed in the car somewhere(Is the Progressive Snap Shot coming to mind
anyone?) and collects the data.
Minnesota recently, in conjunction with the Battelle
Institute tested a way of monitoring mileage using cellphone towers. “The Global Positioning System (GPS)
collected data via an in-vehicle smartphone, an Android-based app created by
Battelle, and a Bluetooth vehicle ID module plugged into on-board diagnostics.
A commercial cloud service hosted the data warehouse. For privacy, the solution
saved anonymous location points and enabled auditing for a billing dispute only
by the owner of the phone that collected the data. Battelle’s solution also
provided drivers with value-added services of road sign display and support for
third-party navigation apps.” Seems the least they can give us in exchange
for monitoring our every move is some fee navigation. Other methods of tracking mileage would be
simply estimating annual mileage on certain types of vehicles and of course occasional
odometer inspections!
Now, once they have that tracking
system in order how are they going to bill us? Once again there are several
proposed ideas. Once again Minnesota has a great layout for this. The seemingly
less invasive option is charging the fee with vehicle registration. Other
options include invoicing to the GPS system (and let’s face it they’ll try to
attach payment directly to our checking accounts if they can). Still sounding
okay to you?
Back to the issue of privacy, first
there’s the concern with being tracked everywhere you go. The use of a GPS
system to monitor our mileage is just Big Brother bearing down on us more, but
what if the systems were to get hacked? Fear not, they have a solution for that
too. Why they’ll just delete your information as soon as you've paid your tax. Or
better yet, how about they just do odometer inspections? I trust the Government
and their concern for privacy about as much as I trust the guy on the corner
who tells me the car radio he wants to sell me isn't stolen.
In my opinion this tax is a ploy to
start bringing us closer to a closed in society. If you can’t afford to drive
your car, you are confined to one area mostly and suddenly you become much
easier to keep track of and to control. I am by no means denying our need to
pay to keep the roads we use up, but this is not the way. It’s easy to go along
with what the Government tells us. Particularly when in theory the ideas seem
good, but technology and innovation aside take a moment to look at the whole
picture and ask yourself why you’re okay with being tracked everywhere and how
you feel about being charged another tax. Don’t be fooled by the promise of
safer roads, ease and convenient ways to pay fees and “free” in car navigation
services. Just because the frosting on the cake looks good doesn't mean the
cake isn't poisoned.
Right now several states including,
Washington State, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado are testing or considering
testing out this new method of taxing drivers.
No comments:
Post a Comment