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| Proposed vehicle tax in Illinois | Login/Join |
Has Achieved Nirvana |
https://www.chicagotribune.com...-20190509-story.html
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
Pushback on a crazy car tax is what got the Governator elected a few years back. As it turned out it was one pf the best things that ever happened to California.
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
Well, it’s not that crazy in the sense that the model of a gas tax paying for roads doesn’t work on all-electric vehicles. But yeah, I can imagine it’s quite a shock. Honestly I see both sides of this.
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Minor Deity |
Get rid of the gas tax. Stop taxing drivers to pay for transportation costs. Everyone--whether they drive or not--benefits from good roads. Get the money from property taxes or income tax.
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
Indeed. | |||
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Everyone benefits from good roads, but those who drive on them benefit more. | |||
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
I think a use tax is reasonable. This just doesn't seem like a very well-thought out solution. The state gas tax has been 19 cents since 1990. There's legislation pending to raise that to 44 cents. There's also a proposal to raise the annual vehicle registration fee from $98 to $148 for gasoline powered cars (including hybrids). That means that electric vehicle owners would be paying an extra $850 a year. That's like paying the 44 cent per gallon tax on 1900+ gallons of gas. If you take kind of a medium MPG figure of 25, that's equivalent to driving more than 48,000 miles a year, which I think is high. But I have three year old car with 7500 miles, so what do I know? (I also didn't double-check my math, so I may have gone south somewhere there...) It's also pretty rotten to have been encouraging electric vehicles by setting a low yearly registration fee and then to go in a completely opposite direction and end up penalizing owners. Do we want people to go back to gasoline engines? The most fair approach would be to at least give a break to current electric car owners, perhaps something simple like the fee being based on the model year of the car. And in a perfect world, the registration fee would be based on actual miles driven, but I don't see a practical way to implement that. I do think they should re-think the fee difference between gas and electric vehicles; my gut tells me $850 is too much. source: https://www.chicagotribune.com...t-tl-0516-story.html
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| Minor Deity |
So people with children benefit more than I do from public schools, therefor they should pay a school tax , that I shouldn't have to pay.
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
That's a very different thing, because it's funded a tax that pays for many things ... fire, police, schools, libraries, and other public services. Maybe you don't benefit from schools as much, maybe you benefit from libraries more. And who can say who benefits most from police, or fire protection? Moreover, in many towns where there is a high proportion of senior citizens, schools are terrible ... because the senior citizens band together to vote down school budget increases, and vote out local officials who don't limit budget increases to the services they care about (police and fire, primarily). | |||
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| Minor Deity |
Who can say who benefits most from roads? A police car or ambulance is of little use to non-drivers if the roads are no good, so there is an argument to be made that the gas tax should be written away and added to the same tax that funds fire, police, schools, libraries, etc. Non-drivers depend upon other drivers for a great many services. On the other hand, if the gas tax stays (which it will, obviously), I say it's a double standard for childless people to pay as much for schools as people with children. Not that I resent paying school taxes because I think it's a good investment. The same way I think non-drivers are investing in their own preservation and safety by helping to fund roads.
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
That seems pretty easy. Everyone benefits from truck delivery. The use of roads is the smallest part of the cost of fire safety and police. However, people who don't drive clearly don't benefit as much. Some, in fact, may have made choices about where to live precisely so they didn't have to drive. Conversely, some people opt for long driving commutes in order to reduce their house purchase price (and, by the same token, their property taxes). If you live in NYC, as you once did, many people use mass transit exclusively (and pay through the nose for it), and don't need a car. It's hard to argue that a NYC resident is as dependent on roads, and uses them as much, as the resident of a suburban town without train service. | |||
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Broadening the tax base for schools, beyond just the users, plays an important redistribution function. In fact we should broaden it even beyond localities. Most people find children a more appropriate focus of redistribution efforts than drivers. I’ll bet including you, Steve.
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| Does This Avatar Make My Butt Look Big? Minor Deity  |
Wait, wait, wait. Electric vehicle don't pay gas taxes. True. But electric vehicles use electricity, which means their owners pay all sorts of fees and surcharges through their electric bills. They aren't directly paying for roads, but they are definitely paying their fare share. What am I missing? If, however, an owner of an electric vehicle never charges it at home, the owner's electric bill won't reflect taxes and surcharges associated with the electric bill. So . . . if there is a need to have electric vehicle owners pay their fair share, simply levy a tax on the electricity used at public charging stations. You know all those public charging stations in garages and parking lots, etc.? I had no idea you had to pay to use them! So yeah, just add a surcharge there. | |||
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity  |
Oh, I didn't know this either! How does that work, do drivers have to register and use a CC? Are there any free charging stations? Also, I've always wondered if it's possible for some trouble-making passerby to unplug a charging car. It seems like that would be a kind of vandalism just waiting to happen, though maybe not? /threaddrift
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