Buffalo Boy's Blog

They can't be serious. The way our governments waste money and then the state of Oregon comes up with the biggest bone headed idea on the face of the planet. Taxing motorists based on miles driven.

Oregon lawmakers are worried that with less gasoline being purchased due to lower demand because of hybrid cars and increased fuel efficiency that they won't be able to raise enough money to pay for roads and infrastructure with the current gas tax system.

Tax American's based on how much we drive, based on mileage. I am as big of a green guy as they get. I get the idea. Taxing people on mileage would generate income, everyone drives. Installing GPS on vehicles to do it too.....I get it...But its the worst idea ever concieved. Thats fine though. Lets start the program with every single local, county, state and federal employee and politician first. For real. For the first five years of the program we will try it out on our politicians first and see how they like it.

Lets see how they like the American people seeing how much they drive, how much they waste and how much it would cost them first. We put the GPS on their private limos, their personal cars, their family members cars, anyone related to politicians or civil service workers on up the chain to the federal level.

After five years of them paying out of their pockets for this program, if they like it, then the rest of the country can adopt it. If they don't, we scrap the idea.

The talk is in Oregon that they could tax a premium rate for rush hour. Thats a great way to promote business and to stimulate the Oregon and for that matter the US economy. Tax us for driving to and from work everyday. What a dumb ass idea. You would get most workers waiting at work until the premium rate for the evening commute is up and probably showing up late or leaving extremely early to avoid the premium rate.

I do homecare, I travel all day long, That shoots me right in the foot. Why bother working. One proposal had a quarter cent per mile to make up for the gas tax. Bull shit. Right now I drive 50+ miles in a day. I have to. I have to or I can't do my work. Every day I would have to pay  at least 12.5 cents. Thats 62.5 cents a week. Thats unecessary. That doesn't include weekend driving. In addition to that I pay a toll both ways going over Grand Island.

If they want to do that and New York follows suit, thats fine, then every single toll barrier in this state needs to be torn down. That includes Grand Island and the New York State Tolls and  the Customs tolls. Tear down the tolls at the state and federal level on all major thruways in the country. Immediately repeal any federal, state and county gas tax as well. 

In addition, if the states want to do this, they have to pay for the GPS that is going in my car. That is not going to be an out of pocket expenditure for any American.

A better idea than the GPS would be every year for inspection they record your mileage and tax you accordingly. And an even better idea than that, make the inspection itself free. If you're going to hit us with the mileage tax, do a little work as our political leaders and look for ways to save money on things that the gas tax goes to.

The best idea is to scrap it all together and leave things be. We can never catch a break in this country without some crappy tax. Enough. Figure out a way to live without the gas tax revenue. Let the American people enjoy better gas mileage in their cars and less cost of owning a car. Nothing can ever go without some bullshit tax in this country and if this takes effect we will have Oregon to thank for thinking it. Oregon. What the hell is there in Oregon anyway besides a shitty basketball team?

I may be an environmentalist at heart, but that doesn't mean that I don't believe in our right to drive our cars where we want to without being taxed for driving too many miles. Let us take advantage of new fuel economy standards and hybrid cars and let us have the freedom to drive them as we need to without having to worry about another tax.