(No, unfortunately, this one is not an “April Fools” joke.)<\/p>\n
Some 35 years ago, Americans first became generally aware that there could be a \u201cgasoline crisis\u201d — that our dependence on imported oil could combine with taxation, price controls, and other \u201cwell-meaning\u201d government interventions to create fuel shortages, lines, all kinds of chaos.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, those little imported cars that got superior gas mileage no longer looked like toys meant only for hippies and college professors.<\/p>\n
But imagine that someone, 35 years ago, had said, \u201cWatch out! If you let them legislate that cars have to get better gas mileage, they\u2019ll eventually use the fact that we\u2019re burning less fuel as an excuse to install tracking devices in our carts, so they can tell where we are every minute of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
That person would have been dismissed as a paranoid fruitcake, right?<\/p>\n
The Nevada Department of Transportation hosted a meeting in Reno March 30 to announce a new study on alternatives to fuel taxes to pay for road maintenance. With new cars and hybrid vehicles using less gas, fuel taxes haven\u2019t kept pace with the government\u2019s \u201cneeds,\u201d explained NDOT Director Susan Martinovich.<\/p>\n
By 2016, officials estimate Nevada could face a $6 billion shortfall in road maintenance needs. And Nevada isn\u2019t alone. According to a 2008 estimate, the whole country was $140 billion short in highway funding, with the problem growing as gasoline taxes increasingly fail to cover the mounting demand for money.<\/p>\n
One idea being considered by Nevada, the federal government and 15 other states is charging motorists for \u201cvehicle miles traveled,\u201d replacing gas taxes with a fee assessed on the actual amount of driving a person does, thus penalizing those who went out and bought vehicles that get better mileage, while rewarding those who kept their V-8s.<\/p>\n
NDOT, along with the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, will study how such a system could be implemented.<\/p>\n
Nobody seriously believes you can count on drivers to voluntarily report mileage driven. So most studies so far support wireless communication devices or Global Positioning System receivers installed in cars, which could record mileage driven, time of day traveled and the type of route, NDOT officials say. Car manufacturers could be required to install GPS devices to determine mileage and fees. (Assuming anyone but the government is still manufacturing cars, a few years from now.)<\/p>\n
Such a system would also allow authorities to track down your exact whereabouts at any time, should you be wanted for questioning on suspicion you\u2019ve been paying cash for medical services, using incandescent light bulbs or Freon refrigerant or full-sized toilet tanks, failing to pay your new federal \u201cValue Added Tax\u201d on proceeds from Internet or yard sales … any number of new \u201ccrimes\u201d that would have had granddad scratching his head in wonder.<\/p>\n
Scott Rawlins, NDOT deputy director, says privacy is a central issue in the debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome say we don\u2019t want Big Brother following us around,\u201d Rawlins said. \u201cHow do we protect the privacy of those vehicle owners and not have that sense out there?\u201d<\/p>\n
Read it again. Mr. Rawlins isn\u2019t against tracking us. He just hopes they can come up with a way that prevents taxpayers from having the \u201c\u2018sense\u201d that we\u2019re being tracked.<\/p>\n
NDOT officials muse they could also take odometer readings during annual vehicle registration, or plant \u201ccards\u201d inside cars that automatically store mileage data, with the information recorded at card-reading stations where billing is determined.<\/p>\n
What about out-of-state tourists and truckers? Nevada has lots of those. When \u201csmart cards\u201d or GPS devices replace the gas tax, would they contribute nothing at all to Nevada road maintenance? Or would these \u201csmart cards\u201d somehow know to remit mileage fees to the states in which those miles are driven?<\/p>\n
Or would the new miles-traveled tax be added ON TOP OF the existing gas tax?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there is an opportunity to have another tool, I want that opportunity,\u201d NDOT Director Susan Martinovich told the Reno Gazette-Journal.<\/p>\n
Not \u201ca different tool,\u201d but \u201canother tool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leaving aside a cheap handgun and a nylon stocking pulled down over her face — the favored \u201ctools\u201d of others who believe with Ms. Martinovich that they\u2019re not getting \u201cenough\u201d of other people\u2019s hard-earned money — here\u2019s a tool:<\/p>\n
Sue the federal government under the 10th Amendment. Tell them Nevada will be happy to maintain all the \u201cpost roads\u201d in Nevada … and we\u2019ll be glad to keep 100 percent of the fuel taxes Nevadans now pay, to get the job done. Thanks for offering to let us continue sending most of that loot to Washington, so they can dole back two-thirds to us with speed-limit and helmet-law and seat-belt strings attached — thanks (that is to say), but no thanks.<\/p>\n
And if the courts don\u2019t go for that, at least demand that the federals stop diverting targeted fuel tax excises into \u201cUrban Mass Transit grants\u201d and other \u201cmass-transit\u201d boondoggles.<\/p>\n
This is America, where highways mean freedom, and freedom comes first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(No, unfortunately, this one is not an “April Fools” joke.) Some 35 years ago, Americans first became generally aware that there could be a \u201cgasoline crisis\u201d — that our dependence on imported oil could combine with taxation, price controls, and other \u201cwell-meaning\u201d government interventions to create fuel shortages, lines, all kinds of chaos. Suddenly, those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-brother","category-taxation","category-transportation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-7F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions\/476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}