Re: NFC: Car GPS monitoring Chips & Mileage Tax coming soon
From: Mike Fleischer (themightytoegmail.com)
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:58:18 -0800 (PST)
OK

No your not missing anything, I agree its a flawed idea, though if it is adopted across the country that would be a tax break for most of us, and it makes a bit of sense that someone who drives more and uses the highways more, should maybe pay a little bit more. To your original comment though, I don't see how this would be a liberal Greenie Weenie one? It would tax the Prius owner more than the Ferrari owner on a per gallon basis... If anything it looks, on paper, like a tax break, which (I am told) is a traditionally conservative approach to government.

Mike



Rich wrote:
The purpose is to get revenues to cover state highway expenses right? Well what happens to all the vehicles that are "out of state " licensed and are just passing through Oregon , but buy gas in the same state, but dont have the Big Brother chip installed? They usually pay the tax with the built in state gas tax , but under this system, they escape tax but still put wear & tear on the local roads. Am i missing something ? Truckers cause the most damage to the roads due to their weight. They would buy lots of deisel fuel in the state, but end up not paying any mileage tax. So the rest of the state's resideent drivers would have to make up the difference somehow.Am i missing something?


Rich
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Fleischer" <themightytoe [at] gmail.com>
To: "Rich" <Rich355 [at] comcast.net>
Cc: "The FerrariList" <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 10:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] NFC: Car GPS monitoring Chips & Mileage Tax coming soon


Rich,

I can see why the program was a success in Oregon...

They propose a charge of 1/4 a cent per mile traveled, and to use that instead of the gas tax. See this is not in addition, this is in reaction to the fact that people are buying less gas, and cars with better fuel economy. Here in IL we pay 19 cents per gallon state gas tax... If my car gets 25 mpg (my GTI gets about this city), then I drive 25 miles on 1 gallon and pay 6.25 cents in tax on that gallon. I save 12.75 cents per gallon.

If my car gets 10 mpg (OK my Vette gets that at WOT at Road America) I drive 10 miles on that gallon and pay 2.5 cents in tax on that gallon. I save 16.5 cents per gallon.

If you live in Alaska, you can drive on that bridge to nowhere, and if your car makes less than 32 mpg you still get a tax break since they charge 8 cents a gallon in gas tax there. Lowest in the nation.

Granted I am an engineer so I am pretty handy with a calculator when I need to be... :) Since I tend to drive a gas guzzling sports car and my wife has an SUV, I love this idea. I hope the fed's do this also... Its like an incentive to drive something with terrible mileage (if the base cost of gas wasn't the overriding factor and sticking it to the man was...).

The other aspects I agree sound a bit ignorant. I don't see why they would need to use GPS chips to measure this unless one of the state's officials is holding a large number of shares in SiRF? That is just crazy, and would get very expensive. What do you do for out of state driving? Do those miles count in your state or the state you are in or the state where you bought the gas? Its a bit of a mess...
I can think of many ways to accomplish the same thing better:

1. Have mileage read at an inspection site every year, like when the vehicle is registered again. This may be slightly inaccurate, most Euro cars read high on the speedo, and therefore show higher mileage than actual (so the GPS would be cheaper). American cars are usually dead on accurate, Japanese somewhere in between. I hear you can just drive your Ferrari backwards when you go home and it undoes all the mileage, think of the huge savings!

2. Put in a Smart pass reader at the gas station that pulls mileage data from the car. The GPS seems intrusive but I can see where the devices can be rendered simple odometers rather than a way to track someone's location or prior locations. A 3 axis accelerometer would work just as well, and GPS is LOS so it can cut in and out. I can see where the notion of that might be scary to someone who did not understand the electronics underneath, or the content in modern electronics in general. Rendering a GPS chip into a simple pedometer is just a matter of not saving location data anywhere and just keeping a running tally of the distance traveled. That data is already pretty much completely available in the cell phone in your pocket, and if you have a portable or in car navigation system its likely that information can be pulled out also, and removing the battery in you cell phone will not stop the coin cell in there from working... So big brother is already tracking you, and listening to you when you think you are all alone, and has been for quite a long time now so use headphones and wear a tin foil hat...

You seriously don't like the idea of paying less taxes on gasoline Rich? Based on the Greenie Weenie comment I assume you are not part of the Prius fan club, but it is they who would end up paying more and subsidizing filling potholes on our highways to a greater extent with this law.

BR,
Mike


Rich wrote:
to a liberal Greenie Weenie city near you.

Enjoy your "change".


Rich
  Massachusetts may consider a mileage charge
By GLEN JOHNSON - 11 hours ago
BOSTON (AP) - A tentative plan to overhaul Massachusetts' transportation system by using GPS chips to charge motorists a quarter-cent for every mile behind the wheel has angered some drivers.

"It's outrageous, it's kind of Orwellian, Big Brotherish," said Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, who drafted legislation last week to prohibit the practice. "You'd need a whole new department of cronies just to keep track of it."

But a "Vehicle Miles Traveled" program like the one the governor may unveil this week has already been tested - with positive results - in Oregon.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSFVVWawIJRrWzFM1ICyVaVAy93wD96D9QHO0
_________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe or modify your subscription options, please visit:
http://lists.ferrarilist.com/mailman/options/ferrari/themightytoe%40gmail.com

Sponsored by BooyahMedia.com and F1 Headlines
http://www.F1Headlines.com/




Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.