Your Commute: Soon to Be Taxed
Ever since SFist was a wee little SFist, we were always told that if you were going to make money off people driving, the thing to do is to tax them for the gas they buy. This was considered a win-win: the state makes money and it encourages people to buy fuel-efficient cars. But in this crazy, mixed up state in which we live in, the Governator is thinking about taxing driving differently, by miles instead of gas.
According to Arnie, that whole taxing gas to make people drive fuel-efficient cars thing is working a little too well. With a huge budget deficit and money quickly running out on all the various state transportation projects (the money which we voted to be alloted to go to transporation projects is being used to pay for other things), Arnie is claiming that the state isn't making enough money gas taxing. Since people are buying more fuel-efficient cars (a claim we find a little dubious as the amount of SUVs we see on the highways hasn't really changed that much), there's less money being raised. And since the Governor adamantly opposes new taxes, he has to make that money up by taxing something that doesn't look like a tax but works the same way as a tax. This little dilemna does show the paradox of taxing people to try and get them to change their habits. If it works, you’re actually out of the money. In other words, while driving gas-guzzling cars maybe bad for the environment, it's great for the state's finances
How this is supposed to work is that cars will be tracked using GPS systems that keeps track of how many miles you drive. And yes, hello Big Brother. The system, which is currently used in Oregon, can also be adapted to regulate traffic flow. For instance, they could increase the fees of certain roads during certain hours (like rush hour on the 101) to try and decrease traffic. Not that SFist wants to give anyone ideas on how to do this, but New Jersey has a really simple way of taxing people for the miles they drive- it's called toll booths and it doesn't involve satellites.
Image of the Governor in his incredibly fuel-efficient Hummer from SFGate.
Right now, the Governor, has been mum on the subject, but his newly appointed head of the DMV supports the idea. And you don’t really think Arnie would have appointed the guy if he didn’t kind of believe in what he thinks, do you? The proposal, of course, has a long way to go before becoming law (we’re guessing it’ll be one more ballot measure we’ll have to vote on) but we can’t see the proposal going very far. After all, this is a state that pretty much forces people to move long distances from where they work because it’s the only way they can afford a house, short-changes any decent public transportation forcing everyone into their cars, and then decides to tax people for their long commute.
Why, it’s genius! Genius, we’se tell ya!