Crap like this is the reason we’re asked to be green in the first place. We need to all realize this and vote people like this out.

PROTIP: If someone is asking you to feel guilty about something (anything green) or consider a problem that doesn’t exist (this issue) they are NOT smarter than you- they want something from you.

Also, track me via GPS? FU.

Also, what happens when I drive my Oregon car cross country and I come back and get dinged for 3,000 miles when I fill up? File a formal adjustment request to the DOT? Again, FU.

Also, who pays to fit my car with that crap? Lemme guess… me? FU.

Also, Florida has Sun Pass. Google it if you don’t know about it. WTF is wrong with that if there is an absolute need for alternate income to maintain the roads that, and this is important, cannot be filled by cutting expense spending elsewhere?

Also, “As Oregonians drive less…” that means less wear on roads especially with the damn studded tires people use 1/2 the year up there, therefore less maintenance, so what’s the point again? Oh, more taxes, right. My bad.

My point is, I don’t mind paying taxes for our roads. I don’t mind paying taxes to enforce the law, and some social support programs. But otherwise, all of those programs, such as the Botanical Gardens, and even programs such as The Enviromental Protection Agency. To me, such programs should be run under private organizations, or a social group/commonwealth.

And most of the time, you don’t see any results from these programs. For example, under the Enviromental Protection Agency, they make sure little cars don’t pollute too much, and that people aren’t dumping stuff in a river; however, they have no problems with large corporations putting out millions of times more pollutants than our modern cars. I would have no problem if they went after both small and large problems, so there’s no reason for you to say I don’t support them regulating smaller sources such as my car and larger ones. Either way though, I believe it shouldn’t be run by the government.

The reason being, there’s a difference between society and the government. Government should be there to regulate laws and rules, as well as starting/regulating some initiatives for necessities such as roads and sewage that couldn’t otherwise be directed by society. Society on the other hand should be there for things such as my lost cat and laying bricks where the government has already built roads.

One last thing though; I’ve already paid for the roads. I don’t want to start paying the government for my oil. Simple as that. Going to the government with certain things, such as this, always brings some over reaction. Either over reaction, or no reaction at all.

We try to be “green” and conservative in times of crisis, just like we were asked to do, and crap like this is how we are rewarded!

Governments don’t need to be taxing us more… they need to learn how to be lean and efficient and actually spend less. Cut the pork and quit giving blank checks to everyone who walks up asking for a handout. The days of big spending are coming to an end… and frankly I don’t think Americans can stand to be taxed much further.

You know how much all the combined bailouts are going to cost Americans? $20,000 dollars each. I’ve said it before, I think it would do much better to give each American $20,000.

We don’t need MORE taxes. And the government doesn’t need MORE money. They need to spend LESS money.

Furthermore, I don’t need the government tracking my car. PERIOD.

Lastly, gas prices won’t skyrocket back to $4 a gallon (don’t need to implore this statement- of course, who knows, but check the market and check back). People have seen through the mist, and have seen the truth about gas prices (being that much if it is inflated guessing into the future, investing beforehand). However, that doesn’t mean it won’t go back to pretty ridiculous amounts. But most people have past the global warming fraud, the large profits (no, I’m not saying it was caused by companies), the investments in place, etc.. What I’m saying is, there’s no need for our government to tax us on oil for profit, it’s nearly a necessary commodity. Not one we can’t rid ourselves of, but one that will take time. There’s no way to avoid using gas, so what’s the point in a gas tax? Drive a bit less. Sorry, but the answer isn’t driving less. The answer lies in the energy I use to get from point A to B.

TIme for another Tea Party.

If they’re going to go with a usage monitoring/taxation system, an easier, cheaper, and more practical way to do it would be to increase fuel taxes but offer a rebate to promote conservation. It could be done with a magnetic stripe on your driver’s license or a special gas card or a transponder (like at toll booths) that has to be swiped/scanned at gas stations. Raise fuel taxes by a quarter a gallon, but offer a discount on the first so many gallons per year, say 25 cents off for the first 500 gallons, and after that first 500 gallons you pay more tax. It could even be done in steps: 25 cents for the first 500 gallons, 15 cents for the next 500, a nickel for the next 500, and nothing after that. Forget your license (or fuel card or transponder) at home? Out of state driver? Then you pay the full price with full taxes. A system like this would preserve tax revenue while promoting conservation by rewarding drivers for consuming less (either by driving more efficient vehicles or simply by driving less).

The transponder idea would probably be the best one (compared to magnetic stripes/fuel cards), since it could be car-specific (this would prevent single car/multi driver families from pooling their discounts and never paying the tax – picture “Junior, I’ve gotta fill the car, let’s go to the gas station so I can use your discount”). Transponders wouldn’t be cheap, but they’d have to be cheaper than GPS systems, and since it could only be read at gas pumps (make it a low power transponder with a range of only a few feet to keep the government honest) it couldn’t track vehicle movement. To prevent transponder theft or sharing (picture craigslist ad “Use my transponder to save gas money”) give them some sort of theft deterrence system like car stereos, where they have to be reset if disconnected from the vehicle. To lessen inconvent legitimate resets caused by dead batteries, allow the resets to be done at gas stations (clerk says “Yup, your transponder matches your plate number, so you’re OK).

Recording odometer figures would be one thing…but then watch the odometer rollback stats skyrocket.

And let’s do the math:

If I drive 15k miles per year and my car averages 28mpg, I pay about $128.57/year in fuel taxes at $0.24/gallon.

If I drive 15k miles per year, and I pay 1.2 cents/mile, I’m paying $180/year.

While a tax increase of $51.43 per year isn’t much, it’s still a rise of 40% over the current system, plus I get the government tracking my car.

Not to mention the fact that this system seems to punish people in rural or suburban areas, while it benefits city-dwellers, who already have the option of carpooling and/or one of the best mass-transit systems in the country.

The incentive isn’t to buy more fuel-efficient cars…it’s to drive less. But that isn’t an option for more than half our (10th-largest in area) state’s population. It might actually cause an even higher truck-to-car sales ratio due to the cheaper gas. So someone can buy a 15mpg SUV, drive it the same distance as someone in a 45mpg Prius, and pay no more in taxes.

Plus, as jackjim noted, what of the 200,000 people in Vancouver/ Clark County, WA commuting over the bridge? Unless there are two different sets of pumps (one with taxed gas and one without), it’ll only encourage more people to live in Van-tucky instead of Portland (so they can live state income tax-free in WA and simply commute to Oregon to buy without sales tax, and refuel without a gas tax), which will EXTEND their commuting distances, which will have the OPPOSITE effect this law would.

This law would be stupid, stupid, stupid.

Actually read the article and respond to that. Oregon, a state not the Federal government, is looking to find some way to maintain the flow of money for transportation. While, I am not nearly as cynical as some think I should be when it comes to government, the fact is that more fuel efficient vehicles means less gas tax money which in turns means less money to build and/or maintain roads bridges and signage and so on.

Also your argument about not having to “pay their bills” forgets that everything outside you house that is not grass and trees and the animals in between did not appear by the grace of GOD. Someone had to pay for it. Guess what? We do with our taxes.

If you can find a better way to pay for the roads, bridges, signs, and the rest of the transportation infrastructure of our nation or any nation with more than 10,000 people, then please offer one up otherwise, shut your useless whining hole.

Adults have to pay the bills. Kids just pretend that day will never come while they run them up.

Here’s an idea: LET US KEEP OUR MONEY. We work hard for our money. The people in Washington should just SPEND LESS!!!!! We should get the people in Washington to make the sacrifices. Let them SPEND LESS!

Why should we always pay their bills? It’s not moral and it doesn’t make any sense to take people’s money away from them… It’s like legal theft.

Plus, the last thing we need during these hard economic times would be an increase in taxes…

If Kulongoski is a true politician, Oregon will have both taxes running concurrently just to be safe.

We could use a new bypass or two.

He loves to put his name on things that work, and blame the non liberals if they don’t.

Greed will put My State in the same boat as GM is in. Of course, Portland is a bicycle worshiping city, and I’m sure they think this is a great idea. It’s bad enough the State won’t make more roads and embrace toy trains instead.

Sigh