Infrastructure Bill Includes Pilot Program to Track Your Vehicle

[Buck Fiden]

Big Brother wants to know exactly how far Americans are driving ? and he wants them to pay for it too.

Tucked away on page 508 of the U.S. Senate?s 2,700-page, so-called ?infrastructure? bill, are the plans for a national ?per mile fee? pilot program. And it is exactly what it sounds like ? the more you drive, the more you pay.

More concerning than cost is privacy. In the name of fighting ?climate change? and funding future infrastructure, the federal government would most likely have to track everywhere Americans drive at varying degrees, all while reportedly keeping private data safe.

Get out your wallet, time to pay for the democrat's green new infrastructure bill. Democrats never met a tax they didn't like.

[Dean Hoffman]

The bill calls for system monitors to immobilize vehicles if people are drunk, tired, distracted, or whatever. Automatic emergency braking and monitors to remind mom she has kids in the vehicle are included.

[Ed Pawlowski]

This is intended to get the EV owners to pay their fair share of road use taxes. Do you object to them paying?

[Dean Hoffman]

This strikes me as the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Don't our supposed betters want EVs on the road so the evil petroleum burning vehicles go to junkyards? I'm thinking there are some tax breaks for EV purchases.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Tax breaks today, but the states will still want revenue from them down the road.

[invalid unparseable]

In Ohio registration fees are and extra $50 for hybrids and $200 for all electric. Sounds like a better idea to me and does not take control away from the states.

[Ralph Mowery]

Where do you think the money for the roads come from ? Much of it is suppose to be from the tax on fuel. If most switch to electric cars then the money has to come from somewhere. In the states where you have to get the car inspected every year it will be easy to tell how many miles the car was driven and so much per mile tax can be charged.

All the tax breaks for now is similar to the bait and switch. Get enough to invest in the electric cars because of all the tax brakes, then add the milage tax.

[micky]

One-time tax breaks I think, but the equivalent of gasoline taxes every year.

I've seen a few charging stations around, but yesterday I was in a small shopping center that had FREE chargers. 2PM, Tuesday. Two slots, neither in use. Trader Joe grocery store. Ice cream parlor. Gift shop. Etc/ I suppose if they had enough food for me, I'd go all the time in order to charge my car for free. It wouldn't work with my V-6, however.

[Snag]

Yes , they need to pay their fair share . But there has to be a better way than invading every single citizen's privacy . Where I go and what I do there is nobody's business but mine - and my wife's .

[invalid unparseable]

I doubt if a free charger will give out the charge of the super chargers and they charge two to three times what it would cost you to charge at home. Brother in law in Ohio gave up on them as inconvenient and not always available.

[invalid unparseable]

That is the way I look at it. I get letters from the insurance company that I could save a bundle by installing a unit in the car for them to monitor my driving. Screw that.

[Tekkie©]

On Wed, 4 Aug 2021 11:45:02 -0500, Snag posted for all of us to digest...

PA gov Wolfe is all on board with this. He flat out stated they need a lot more tax money and this is their solution. He also raised the gas tax the first year he was in office.

I may agree they need a cash infusion but have yet to see the results of their previous ventures. In PA the Turnpike was ordered to pay PennDOT a certain amount of the tolls. It is like crack for PennDOT. Where does it go? Meanwhile the Tpk has to raise the tolls IIRC 7% a year. I also see the Tpk degrading.

[invalid unparseable]

What many states do is supposedly put these taxes into a roads fund but just spend like it is the general fund. Then they tell us they need to raise gas tax and the like to pay for the roads.

[Dean Hoffman]

Present day gas pumps can collect tax without identifying the user. Maybe Ralph or some other bright young lad can design something similar for EV charging stations. The EV wouldn't charge unless it senses the tax collector is working. Home charging units would have the taxing gizmo built in. People could use a prepaid tax card available at banks, post offices or wherever. The more secretive types could use a couple cards to make a trail harder to follow. People at home could just use their credit cards. Maybe it would be better to have the card reader in the EV. I bet there are at least a half dozen things wrong with these ideas.

[Ralph Mowery]

What is wrong with collecting the number of miles someone drives every year ? It does not tell where someone goes during that time.

[rbowman]

As long as they don't try to double dip on IC owners... Not that our fine government would ever do anything like that.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Google already know where you've been. So does the phone company. Many crimes have been solved by tracking a suspects travel history from pinging off towers.

[invalid unparseable]

Ed Pawlowski [e-mail] wrote

Not if you don?t allow that by not having a cellphone on.

Not if you don?t allow that by not having a cellphone on.

Not if you don?t allow that by not having a cellphone on.

[Dean Hoffman]

I don't see the once a year thing as a problem. Americans file income taxes on April 15 anyhow. My dad farmed. There was something on his tax forms about the fuel taxes or exemptions. I don't remember what it was.

[Dean Hoffman]

I can think of only a couple inconveniences off hand. Suppose we use New Year's Day as the day to record mileage. What if the owner is away for some reason? What if the owner sells or trades the vehicle sometime during the year? Wrecks it? One advantage we have now with gas pump tax collection is it compensates for different types of vehicles and the loads they're hauling. It's probably as close as we'll come to making people who use our roads the hardest pay the most. Someone driving a VW Bug gets better mileage and won't pay as much tax as a tradesman with a fully loaded pickup pulling a trailer. We don't need someone to decide that a certain type of vehicle does more damage to the roads and should pay more taxes.