Uncle Sam Eyes Vehicle Tracking Tax

A Member of Congress proposes to use taxpayer money to fund the development of technology to track motorists as part of a new form of taxation. US Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) introduced H.R. 3311 earlier this year to appropriate $154,500,000 for research and study into the transition to a per-mile vehicle tax system. The â??Road User Fee Pilot Projectâ?� would be administered by the US Treasury Department. This agency in turn would issue millions in taxpayer-backed grants to well-connected commercial manufacturers of tolling equipment to help develop the required technology. Within eighteen months of the measureâ??s passage, the department would file an initial report outlining the best methods for adopting the new federal transportation tax.

â??Oregon has successfully tested a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) fee, and it is time to expand and test the VMT program across the country,â?� Blumenauer said in a statement on the billâ??s introduction. â??A VMT system can better assess fees based on use of our roads and bridges, as well as during times of peak congestion, than a fee based on fuel consumption. It is time to get creative and find smart ways to rebuild and renew Americaâ??s deteriorating infrastructure.â?�

In 2006, the Oregon Department of Transportation completed its own study of how to collect revenue from motorists with a new form of tax that, like the existing fuel excise tax, imposes a greater charge on drivers the more that they drive. The pilot projectâ??s final report summed up the need for a VMT tax.

â??Unfortunately, there is a growing perception among members of the public and legislators that fuel taxes have little to do with road programs and therefore should be considered â??just another form of taxation,â??â?� the March 2006 report stated. â??By itself, this situation appears to be preventing any increases in fuel tax rates from being put into effect.â?�

The money diverted from the fuel excise tax on non-road related projects must be made up for with a brand new VMT tax, the report argued. Merely indexing the gas tax to inflation or improvements in fleet gas mileage was rejected as â??imprecise.â?� Instead, the report urged a mandate for all drivers to install GPS tracking devices that would report driving habits to roadside Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) scanning devices.

Blumenauer is a long-time advocate of bicycling and mass transit in Congress. Many of his largest campaign donors stand to benefit from his newly introduced legislation. Honeywell International, for example, is a major manufacturer RFID equipment. The company also happens to be the second biggest contributor in the current cycle to Blumenauerâ??s Political Action Committee (PAC), the Committee for a Livable Future. Another top-ten donor, Accenture, is a specialist in the video tolling field.

H.R. 3311 awaits a hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee. A copy of the bill is available in a 170k PDF file at the source link below.

here is the link:
Uncle Sam Eyes Vehicle Tracking Tax | The Truth About Cars


wow. WTF! someone needs to start hanging these politicians.


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my, what a splendid idea. because our representatives have failed to use tax monies earmarked for the express purpose of improving a specific infrastructure in their intended manner, we should just pony up a bit more of our cash to pay for their folly. we pay exorbitant licensing fees (it has just doubled here in california) and ridiculous amounts of tax on our fuel, all to pay for the repair of our crumbling and often insufficient roadways. now that we have all gotten used to those funds being stolen by our representatives for their pet projects, we are supposed to willingly submit to yet another tax which will probably be diverted to some other cause as well. not only will we be told to pay this additional tax, but we will undoubtedly be forced to pay for the necessary technology to implement the usurious designs of our totalitarian masters.

It's an Oregon thing. Actually a tri-county thing. I have yet to vote for Blummenauer. The mayor of Portland tried to tax business storefronts to pay for road maintenance. Turns out there already was a tax for road maintenance that they NEVER used for roads. The idea didn't get anywhere where and it was dropped. I HATE my mayor as a public official. He may be a nice guy but he LOVES to waste my money. Sounds like most politicians.

On tracking vehicles, that sounds scary. If they can track mileage would they be able to track your vehicles specific location too?

yup! your vehicle would have to have GPS that would talk to roadside RFID tags. honeywell stands to make a substantial amount of TAX dollars. they could track your every move including speed. i wonder how long it takes before the first person would get a speeding ticket?

so with this and the health care bill there would be no freedom. they can track basically your every move and know everything you spent money on.

man, i love this country!


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The government already has plenty of ways to track you. All late model cars now have GPS systems standard. The government can gain access to your car's coordinates in case of "emergencies." And they can triangulate you from your cell phone. They're trying to sell that to the public, saying that it's just to find poor lost teenage girls in order to get everyone used to it. Pull the battery out of your cell if you're not using it. They can track you even when it's powered off.

Sounds like big brother. I make my kids read 1984 and A Brave New World every other year to remind where this country is at. Orwell and Huxley were BOTH right!