Vehicle Miles Traveled Fee

Posted on August 23, 2009
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With the exponential growth of the federal government Leviathan, here comes another bill, introduced in the U.S. House of Reprisals, to usurp more of the incomes of the majority of the citizens of the United States. This time it is H.R 3311, of the 111th Congress, introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) on July 23, 2009 and referred to the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation on July 27, 2009. The cover story for this bill is that funding is needed for rebuilding and renewing America’s deteriorating infrastructure. The net affect of the bill would be to limit mobility of the citizenry and to pick our pockets for even more of our disposable income.

The bill is an attempt to implement at the federal level, a program emulating a 2006 Oregon pilot program, where 200 vehicles were taxed a fee of 1.2 cents per miles driven at the pump when filling up. The distance traveled was tracked via Global Positioning System (GPS) devices installed in each vehicle.

On February 20, the Obama Administration Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, stated that the new administration may look to a system of charging motorists a tax for every mile they drive. After that statement was made, other administration officials, through their spokesman, Robert Gibbs, indicated that they would not consider such a plan.

However, now the U.S. House has taken such a plan under consideration. This plan could, in addition to GPS devices, require a small electronic transponder type of device, similar to the E-ZPass device used in many east coast states for toll charges. E-ZPass type facilities would read the individual transponder to track their movements. Possibly it would make use of RFID technology, as well.

The U.S. House proposal directs over $150 million dollars to conduct a pilot study on implementation of such a plan. I guess the $150 million is a stimulus ‘investment’ to stimulate more revenue for the big government types to blow and for the statist control over freedom.

The Vehicle Miles Traveled fee would be in addition to the highway fuel taxes already extracted for each gallon of gasoline you purchase. In addition to the federal taxes, there are state fuel taxes and the sales taxes on top of that. The federal government and some states have been pushing for less and less miles driven per capita, and then when it actually happens, like in 2008 when gasoline was going for over $4.00 per gallon, they rush out to find new ways to screw the citizenry.

Contact your Representative and ask them to kill H.R 3311, should it make it out of the Science Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, part of the Committee on Science and Technology, for a floor vote.