Archive for July, 2011

Query by Mark K: Government would like to install GPS in every single auto to tax you by the Miles you drive, is that a wonderful Idea or what? If you live in Minnesota Please do not re-elect this JERK OK?

I have to move far from my job simply because I can’t afford to live close because if Genuine Estate prices are also higher so I live two hours out of the city

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/occasion/article/id/119008/group/property/

Late last week in Washington, U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar touted spending half a trillion dollars to resolve the nation’s transportation woes.

He followed that up on Monday with a news release promising that motorists in Northeastern Minnesota “will see record levels of road development this summer,” thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Investments in infrastructure sound fantastic. No one desires to look further than the collapsed Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis to recognize our nation’s highways, bridges, rail lines and other transportation systems have been overlooked for also lengthy.

But a nagging question persists: Exactly where will the income come from?

We certainly hope we

didn’t hear aspect of the solution yesterday when news broke that Oberstar, chairman of the Home Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, needed to right away enact a mileage-based tax on cars and trucks.

Whether enacted instantly or in the future, a new tax now — or anytime, really, no matter what the economy is like — would be about as welcome as hitting one particular of those tire-popping potholes along Glenwood Street.

Taxing Americans based on the miles they drive would need a frightening quantity of government intrusion. Automobiles would need to have to be equipped with GPS technologies that could decide how many miles a car has been driven and no matter whether the miles have been logged on interstate highways or on secondary roads. Not attempting to sound big-brother paranoid, but

wouldn’t such technological innovation also enable vehicles to be tracked — with the likely for a enormous invasion of privacy?

Oberstar spokesman Jim Berard argued that “a car miles-traveled tax is a logical complement, and perhaps a future replacement, for fuel taxes.” But once the two taxes are in location, does any person seriously think one would be eliminated in favor of the other? Especially with a “strong require [for government] to locate income,” as Berard stated?

Challenging-operating commuters finding to and from work would be hit challenging by a mileage-based tax. Rural locations and smaller towns, like Duluth and Oberstar’s native Chisholm, also would bear the brunt. Handy public transportation is not available in these locations like it is in Washington or elsewhere residents can hop a subway to get close to — or exactly where a congressman can call for a driver to take him in which he desires to go.

Infrastructure investment is needed. No denying that. But we don’t need to shell out so much that new taxes have to be created to spend for it all. The investment does not have to outcome in record levels of road development. And it doesn’t have to come at a expense of half a trillion dollars.

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