A new Congressional Budget Office study says taxing motorists based on the number of miles they drive would be a fair and "efficient" way to charge motorists for the real cost of using the nation's highways. "Vehicle-miles traveled" taxes (or VMT taxes) also would provide a strong incentive for people to drive less.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood floated the idea of a VMT tax one month after President Obama took office, but Obama’s spokesman immediately shot it down. "It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters in February 2009.
But that was then.
The CBO study, released this week, says the federal government pays in part for about 25 percent of the nation's highways, which carry about 85 percent of all road traffic. Right now, federal spending on those highways is funded mainly by taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, but those taxes do not raise enough money to support either the current federal spending on highways -- or the higher spending levels that some transportation planners advocate.
While raising fuel taxes would bring in more money, the CBO notes that a "fundamental" problem would remain: "By themselves, fuel taxes cannot provide a strong incentive for people to avoid overusing highways," the report said.
On the other hand, VMT taxes would have most motorists paying "substantially more than they do now -- perhaps several times more," the report said. "Such a system would maximize the efficiency of highway use by discouraging trips for which costs exceed benefits."
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11 comments:
I think my odometer just broke....
lmao! over using the highways please explain that one to me. would that be like being to good looking? to rich? vs? maybe we should be 4 wheeling accross the country? how many billions are dervied from the gas taxes now and where is it spent? more bridges to no where?
try taking mass transit! it doesn't exist except in the the major cities! just another ploy to control and rob us!
ughhh we have to deal with this because of a bunch of idiots who voted for a mouthpiece!
granted mccain didn't impress me either, but he would've been hard pressed to be this idiotic!
guess all those hybrids and high mpg cars are cutting into the tax collected.
i drive 110 miles each day for work, will i get a deduction for work miles?
man i love the dems
Yeah, and like ANY of this money would go to highway maintenance..
It will go to pay for more medicaid/foodstamps/cell phone bills/lottery tickets/Acuras.
Ok so i pay tax on gas i pay tax on my car when i bought it and i pay for the registration every 2 years ... and get robbed by the insurance co every year.... this is just another way of the government controlling movement of people in the US
I see an idea for a new product. An electronic switch to stop the odometer from working. One that you can turn on again when the government starts inspecting it.
no, 10:38-- Big Brother will have a special box installed on your vehicle that will tell them lots more than just how many miles you drive.
Note-- this is LIBERALS proposing this.
Just another reason we need to go out and get more people involved in voting for politicians who don't want to tax and spend us into oblivion.
I don't know about you guys, but I already pay increased taxes when I drive more. Each gallon of gas I put in my car breaks down as:
Federal: 18.4 cents
State: 23.5 cents PLUS SALES TAX!
So if gas is costing me $3.75 per gallon, I am paying 59.4 cents in taxes on each gallon of gas going in my car.
My average fillup is about 11 gallons, so a tank costing $41.25 contains $6.53 in taxes.
If I get 30MPG, I am being taxed about 2 cents per mile that I drive.
"avoid overusing highways"???
once the pride of the federal government to speed gas consuming americans on their way, now the government "of the people" is blaming the people for their own lack of foresight in planning how to maintain all that concrete and asphalt they laid down.
this is kind of like gary comegys, mike dunn, lynn cathcart and barrie tilghman blaming the people of salisbury for flushing their toilets into the dream team's disaster of a wastewater treatment plant.
and there goes the travel industry!!! wonder if the feds plan on bailing them out too?? And, for the record, the govt doesn't pay for the highways, just like everything else in this country THE TAXPAYERS DO!!!!
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