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9Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brad Witt, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Pat Robertson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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We have the data, just charge non gas fired Vehicles a flat rate each month. Simple Problem solved.
GAS TAX vs FUEL SAVING VEHICLES
Democratic state representative in Salem introduced a bill to make the Oregon road usage charge mandatory for vehicles that get 30 mpg or better beginning with the 2028 model year. Washington state following suite. Now Pacific Northwest policymakers, are trying to make up for the long-term decline in gas tax revenues. Right now electric car drivers are paying a higher registration fee for the privilege of driving these so-called green cars. Whether they are “green” is a whole other story and will be talked about in an up-coming Take. Oregon law makers are trying to figure out ways to increase the gas tax, without calling it the gas tax increase. The gas tax is used for highway repairs, bridges etc. The gas tax revenue has been falling since more fuel economy cars came to be and now the electric car. In Oregon people hate any new taxes, which I agree with. So the legislature is trying to give the drivers a choice on how to pay a new tax, either by their registration fees or by a few cents per mile which you drive on cars that get 30 mpg or better, starting in 2028. As they say the government will get the money from you one way or the other. This has been an issue ever since fuel efficient cars came on line, we all knew that the gas tax revenues would decrease, so if you try and help the reduction of carbons, get away from fossil fuels which we all want ,and which the Gov. pushes you would have to pay more through more taxes. Of course this new proposed tax would target folks in the rural areas, as they have to drive further to do every day functions. Oregon leads the nation in rolling out the pay-by-the-mile alternative, having run several pilot road tests dating back more than a decade. It now collects real money from real-world drivers who voluntarily opt-in to pay by the mile in exchange for a deep discount on their annual car registration fees and/or a rebate of gas tax paid at the pump. The OReGO program had 810 vehicles enrolled as of January, a slight increase from the 787 vehicles participating a year earlier. Program participants in Oregon currently pay 1.9 cents per mile driven. The new electric vehicle owners are most likely to come out ahead, possibly by hundreds of dollars, under the pay-per-mile program because they escape a significant increase in annual car registration fees that took effect in 2020 and 2022 for highly fuel-efficient autos. Proposes to shift the program into a higher gear by making the per-mile charge mandatory beginning with the model year 2028 vehicles rated 30 mpg combined or better, the transition to pay-per-mile would accelerate to nearly all new passenger vehicles in late 2035.Two years ago, a similar measure was proposed to make the per-mile tax mandatory beginning with the model year 2027 high-mileage vehicles, but that proposal died in committee. Here comes a big worry for electric car drivers and frankly most Oregonians. How would the states track the miles you have driven? Simple they would put a GPS tracker in your car electronics. But it would so-called stop tracking you if you drove out of Oregon. Ya right! I am not comfortable with that, and neither should anyone. They would automatically send you a bill through a credit card. Too much intrusion by the government in my opinion. The backers of this idea say that everyone with a smartphone in their pocket, and is probably already accepting more pervasive tracking. The pilot pay-per-mile programs have always had an option for drivers to manually report their miles accompanied by a proof photo of the odometer reading. Still over reaching. Then there is the issue of the state Department of Licensing who must strictly protect the vehicle location information and cannot disclose it to law enforcement without a court order. What a can of worms just to try and get more tax dollars. Why don’t the state just stick with the higher registration fees, and call it good. Or just charge the electric car folks a small monthly fee to cover the loss of the gas tax. So they collect a little more or a little less from each registered car, it will work out in the end. Many places in many other states charge tolls to use certain roads, they place a sticker in the car window and as you drive a long there are sensors that read your sticker and you get a bill, many Americans live with it and are ok with that system. And the money is used for road construction and repair. They can’t track your other where a bout’s on all roads only on a major road. I personally do not support following people around period, its none of any ones business where I go. I do not support the tracking on cell phones either. No matter what, this will be debated in Oregon again this year and in Washington State as well. How about the States stop wasting taxpayer money with programs that do not benefit the people.
Tammy
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