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« Bredesen for President? Not Without a Cogent Plan... | Main | Bredesen Administration Refusing to Make TennCare Records Public » February 15, 2005Nanny State UpdateLiberal bureacrats who have long pushed for regulations designed to get people to drive more fuel-efficient cars are now whining that the more people drive fuel-efficient cars, the less gasoline tax revenue the state will get for building roads. And their proposed solution is a very, very, very bad idea It's a plan to put a government-monitored GPS system in every car for the purpose of tracking how many miles you drive, and when, and where, and then taxing you by the mile. The plan is the brainchild of some Nanny-State bureaucrats in Oregon and California, where liberal regulators who have long pushed for people to drive more fuel-efficient cars are now whining that the more people drive fuel-efficient cars, the less gasoline tax revenue the state will get. There's a simpler way to raise money to build roads, a way that doesn't have overtones of Big Brother, doesn't allow government to build a database of your travel habits, and doesn't invade your privacy - but has been proven to be a successful financing mechanism for roads. Toll roads. Posted in Environment
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What do these people use for brains?! Posted by: Bostonian at February 15, 2005 07:32 PMHmmmm. Sorry to say this but the current trend is for *insurance companies* to require this sort of thing. Many new vehicles have "black boxes" embedded in their construction. Particularly the more expensive vehicles. These devices record just about everything that the vehicles does and can be equipped with GPS devices. The original intent was for car manufacturers to acquire data for crash analysis. Now insurance companies are considering perhaps creating a tiered system where a higher charge is implemented for vehicles that don't have one of these devices. These devices would allow the insurance company to determine more effectively if the driver was a fault in an accident. Then there's the implementation of EZ-Pass systems. Here in New Jersey the police regularly send out speeding tickets based on EZ-Pass records. If you're going to fight this, better start now. Posted by: ed at February 15, 2005 10:12 PMThere are two grounds to argue against this. One is on 3rd amendment grounds that you are forced to support an automated agent of the state on your property (a small amount of electrical power must be used to power the thing and you pay for that in gasoline both in powering it and in carrying it). Another is in simply removing the box, disabling it, or most provocatively, hacking it and turning it so that it is under your control. If it is your car, why can't you do it? Posted by: TM Lutas at February 15, 2005 11:13 PMIt's also an old idea. We once figured out that unless they can drop the estimated price of their units substantially, it'd end up costing more. Our solution: Simply raise gas taxes if the average miles per gallon gets too high. If an alternative fuel comes out, then tax that when it becomes financially sound. You'd only need something like this for an electric car. Posted by: Firethorn at February 16, 2005 06:00 AMBetter yet, try SPENDING LESS. Then you won't need as many of OUR tax dollars. Posted by: Croaker at February 16, 2005 09:11 AMThey don't want to send you a bill either. They want direct EFT from your account to theirs. Sure, like I will trust them to keep my personal bank info secure and only take out what they need/want. If there ever was a case for a "tea party" this nonsense is it. I'm sure with street light cameras coming to Knoxville, this will be next. Knoxville/Knox County is an 800 pound gorilla with an insatiable appetitite. They'll probably tax walking next by shoving a GPS where the sun don't shine. Posted by: The Frog Gigger at February 17, 2005 01:26 AMPost a comment
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