Friday, December 26, 2014

Pay by Mile Coming to California

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Big Government progressivism survives by sucking money out of the citizens, and learning new ways to keep tabs on you, or control you.  They are constantly working on finding new ways to take your money from you, and micromanage your lives, especially when their existing policies result in dropping revenue.  We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem, but no good liberal would ever admit that, and as they tax you to high heaven in gas taxes, their environmentalism-based policies of regulating automobile companies into creating more fuel efficient vehicles has reduced the use of gas as they hoped, and in turn, has reduced the amount of tax money being reaped from drivers.  To make up for it, to force you to pay your "fair-share," as they would put it, the liberal left progressive socialist commie bastards are proposing taxation by the mile.

The drive for taxation by the mile is alive and strong in the State of. . . you guessed it, California.

A few months ago Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a "test-the-waters" version of a pay-by-the-mile tax bill.  The pilot program, they hope, will lead to a State-wide pay-by-the-mile taxation by 2018.

Enforcing the tax requires using modern technology in order to pay for (they tell us) infrastructure projects.  Oregon has also been exploring this kind of taxation, as well, offering a "voluntary" (remember, 16th Amendment income taxation began as a voluntary program, as well) pay-as-you-drive tax setup next year offering 5,000 drivers the chance to pay 1.5 cents for every mile they travel in the State.

The technology for the Oregon system uses a pair of devices, one in the vehicles, and one in special fuel pumps, that use GPS to track miles driven.  The tax is charged at the pump itself.  When you pay taxes in pieces, you are more likely to be willing to pay it, because you don't have to come up with an annual lump sum at the end of the year.  Oregon has found that they were able to suck 28 percent more tax money out of motorists using this method, than they would have using fuel taxes alone.

Other technology is on the horizon that may make charging you for driving more easier, such as through services like Apple's iPay and in-car Internet setups, such as General Motors OnStar.

Eventually, you won't be able to buy a car that doesn't nark on you regarding how many miles you drive.  Surely, the technology will end up doing more than counting your miles, but will also allow the government to know where you are at all times.  The California law claims its panel will address privacy worries, but we know that once you allow government its nose into the tent, it won't be long before they are completely in control of your lives.

Taxation, and monitoring your movements.  Shortly after that, they will begin telling you who you can associate with.

The liberal left tells us it is racist to ask illegal aliens for their papers, but asking you to be monitored and for your whereabouts to be known at all times, and then charging you for the government to have this information in the guise of a pay-by-mile tax, is not only acceptable, but demanded.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

2 comments:

Call Me Mom said...

Why in the (unladylike expletive here) would anyone allow the government to put a GPS tracker on their vehicle for any reason? It is not of the government's business how much I drive unless I am claiming mileage for business and then the current system works just fine.

Why don't they make us all wear GPS collars and tax us if we don't walk far enough in a day to be healthy too?

Just how dumb are we?

Sheesh.

Anonymous said...

Defiantly discriminates against the Rural poor!