ROCKVILLE, Md. - Imagine having a GPS tracker installed in your car that would monitor each mile you drive. Then you would be charged a fee for each of those miles. It is just an idea for now, but it has already got people in Maryland fired up.
It's called the “Vehicle Miles Travelled" tax or VMT tax. The way it would work is a GPS tracker or odometer reading would keep track of a driver's mileage. That number would be reported to the government and then the driver would be charged a fee per mile.
AAA Mid-Atlantic's John Townsend says it is the worst of ideas.
“This would be the third rail of politics – if you touch it, you die – and no politician with half a brain would even fathom this,” he says.
Supporters say it could be good for the environment and help to cut emissions and discourage driving.
But others say the tax would hurt middle and lower income families who may live further away to afford housing.
“People are working two or three jobs just to make a living,” said one resident we spoke with. “And this would be very bad for them.”
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27 comments:
I drive 25,000 miles a yr for my job. The gas tax isn't enough for the dictator in the White House. What idiot thought of this idea.
Welcome to communism.
They refuse to allow IDs when voting because it will hurt the poor. This will do the exact same thing. It is the people that can not afford to live in big towns and move further away that will suffer. We already pay gas tax how is this not a double tax? People do not drive long distances because they want to. They do it because they have to. Maybe it is meant to punish the counties that surround the big 4 counties in Maryland.....you know the counties that vote for the Republicans.
This is BS everything I see anymore with politics is BS
This has nothing to do with the Whitehouse. It's the state of Maryland that is proposing this not the Feds.
9:56 You're wrong. Theres talk about this everywhere, Maryland maybe the first one to pick it up.
Anonymous said...
This has nothing to do with the Whitehouse. It's the state of Maryland that is proposing this not the Feds.
July 4, 2014 at 9:56 PM
Yeah so what. They are still idiot Democrats.
So glad I left Maryland!
Would hurt the economy, people would stay home more, fewer restaurants, theater's, hotels, etc. And fewer jobs as a result of people staying home. Land of the tax and slave. Government has created a slave state as people are dependent on government for their food, housing etc. They don't even try to better themselves but rather drain the resources of this country.
I drive many miles each year for my job and don't mind this tax at all. Just tax for what you use. For example, I have no children so don't tax me for any of the school or education programs. I have never required the assistance of the Fire Department or ambulance. Welfare, food stamps, cell phones etc fall into the same category.
This is a Democrat proposal that only a liberal state like MD would try.
This is a Democrat proposal that only a liberal state like MD would try.
Thanks to democrats this is coming because of their green energy rich donors.
Billionaire Tom Steyer is your typical limousine liberal,giving money to democrats to stop the Keystone pipeline but has 250 million dollars invested in coal mines.This tax will be no different just follow the money.
Actually this is a conservative concept -- a real user fee based on actial usage. It looks good to this Republican!
You could simply form a corpoatation in DE. And register you vehicles there. Every few years you will have to drive to Georgetown.
The question is how much are they trying to get and will it offset the cost of setting up a corporation.
This is ridiculous! I commute to work (100 miles each way). Thank goodness that MD is small and moving across state lines is an option. This proposal might work in an area where public transit is available and reliable, but not in an area where people have to commute to make a little more than minimum wage. I wonder if you are recieving government support if you still get taxed, or is this another proposal to tax the working class????
The understanding I get from what I've read is Maryland wants the mileage driven tax,the autmatically yearly increasing gas tax and the state sales tax on your fuel.
told you all this was coming but oh wait you called me a conspiracy theorist... Can't be fake if it is real, right?
Dumb ass people... never learn...
My sensor broke. The GPS is out as well. Darn it, and my phone battery is here laying on the center console. Oh, well.
since when do they care about the middle class...
It is all about taking your money any way they can and you keep letting them, so why not let them do this too...
They even tax the rin no for god sakes... And you dumb ass people still think they won't go through with this?
I told you this was coming but NO the govt won't do anything like this will they... UNTIL THEY DID...
ffs. because the gas and gas tax isn't enough?
Actually the fed govt has been looking at this too. In fact you would be surprised which organizations are willing to condone it.... but only when out of public view.
This is also a national thing.
Do not trust what Townsend is saying. See pg 9 where AAA recommended the state of Idaho adopt a VMT Tax
https://itd.idaho.gov/taskforce/resources/AAARecommendations.pdf
See what AAA wrote about tnis.
http://newsroom.aaa.com/2013/12/vehicle-miles-traveled-vmt-based-charging-system/
Not quite the "third rail" talk here.
DO NOT TRUST Two-Faced Triple-A. They tell any reporter whatever they think the public wants to hear and then lobbies for the opposite. I have the knife scars on my back to prove it. AAA is one of the reasons Maryland has speed cameras.
Oregon already has started this as a pilot. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments is studying it for the DC metro area.
Lt Governor Brown's name is on the Maryland DOT's proposal but of course he's unwilling to own it in an election year.
AAA would have had Maryland adopt speed cameras all the way back in 2002.
http://ww2.gazette.net/gazette_archive/2002/200214/silverspring/news/98529-1.html
They go on the news B&M-ing about speed cameras all the time, yet THEY LOBBIED FOR THE CAMERAS. Do not trust anything AAA says.
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