Getting Hosed

I see some of our governmental entities are talking about raising gasoline tax because we’re buying less gasoline and they’re having trouble paying for highway upkeep.

I’m not going to get into the fact that we spend way too much on highways, partly in an effort to make them safer for irresponsible drivers and partly to enable us to drive hundreds of miles without seeing a stop sign or signal, because an article by Reuters gets into another alternative – a mileage tax.

The idea is to have a GPS implement in your car that, every time you gassed up, would work out how many miles you’ve driven and what your mileage tax should be.

Man, what a relief! That means the folks who drive the heavy, gas-guzzling SUVs can offset their tax bill a little bit while those driving economy cars to keep down transportation costs help shoulder the load.

There are many disturbing things about the idea, but I will allow one exception. It may be appropriate to have owners of electric cars and, to a lesser degree, hybrid cars pay a highway tax of some kind and a mileage tax may be an answer.