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When you fill up your car with gas these days, you're taxed, and the money raised helps pay for road maintenance. But a new move is afoot, driven by funding concerns, to tax you based on how many miles you drive, not how much gas you buy.
According to a USA Today story, the federal government isn't raising enough money in the gas tax, in part because people are driving more fuel-efficient cars. Those hybrids and green cars still use roads as much as a gas guzzler, but folks are filling up less, which means less revenue to maintain roads.
Here are three concerns with the vehicle-miles traveled tax:
- Privacy: How would the government tax you on how many miles you've driven without tracking you and knowing exactly where you're going and where you've been. Some people find that downright creepy.
- Wide open spaces: Folks in rural areas -- such as a Missouri senator -- are really concerned because they tend to drive more miles than people in cities and suburbs. People in Montana, for instance, don't really want to subsidize the rest of the nation's roads.
- Hidden taxes: Taxpayer groups worry that Congress could tax people more without them realizing it -- perhaps charging more for certain roads or for roads used at peak traffic times.
Here are a few ways to localize the story:
- Check with your lawmakers to see whether they support the idea, which is expected to come up before the Senate Finance Committee. If you live in a rural area, are lawmakers fighting the law based on the necessity of people to drive more for basic services or for work than people in urban or suburban areas?
- Ask people in your county roads department what they think of changing the way we've been taxed for the past 80 years, from a system based on taxes at the pump, to a system that would charge based on how much your drive. What are the dangers of not maintaining the infrastructure that higher taxes at the pump or a new system of taxes would achieve?
- Do you have consumer advocates or tax groups in your area who could speak to the possible invasion of privacy? What alternatives would these advocates suggest?
When you fill up your car with gas these days, you're taxed, and the money raised helps pay for road maintenance. But a new move is afoot, driven by funding concerns, to tax you based on how many miles you drive, not how much gas you buy.
According to a USA Today story, the federal government isn't raising enough money in the gas tax, in part because people are driving more fuel-efficient cars. Those hybrids and green cars still use roads as much as a gas guzzler, but folks are filling up less, which means less revenue to maintain roads.
Here are three concerns with the vehicle-miles traveled tax:
- Privacy: How would the government tax you on how many miles you've driven without tracking you and knowing exactly where you're going and where you've been. Some people find that downright creepy.
- Wide open spaces: Folks in rural areas -- such as a Missouri senator -- are really concerned because they tend to drive more miles than people in cities and suburbs. People in Montana, for instance, don't really want to subsidize the rest of the nation's roads.
- Hidden taxes: Taxpayer groups worry that Congress could tax people more without them realizing it -- perhaps charging more for certain roads or for roads used at peak traffic times.
Here are a few ways to localize the story:
- Check with your lawmakers to see whether they support the idea, which is expected to come up before the Senate Finance Committee. If you live in a rural area, are lawmakers fighting the law based on the necessity of people to drive more for basic services or for work than people in urban or suburban areas?
- Ask people in your county roads department what they think of changing the way we've been taxed for the past 80 years, from a system based on taxes at the pump, to a system that would charge based on how much your drive. What are the dangers of not maintaining the infrastructure that higher taxes at the pump or a new system of taxes would achieve?
- Do you have consumer advocates or tax groups in your area who could speak to the possible invasion of privacy? What alternatives would these advocates suggest?
