BCT Editorial – 12/11/05

This page was last updated on December 17, 2005.

GPS-based tax; Editorial; Beaver County Times; December 11, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“GPS technology offers a glimpse into how Pennsylvania’s tax structure needs to reflect the modern world.

“Like more than 30 states, Pennsylvania uses a fuel tax to pay for its transportation infrastructure. However, as Alex Marshall, a senior fellow at The Regional Plan Association, New York City, wrote in Governing magazine, the gas tax, ‘no matter how much you raise it, … won’t pay the direct costs of our road system, much less other transportation needs.’”

[RWC] Why should a gasoline tax pay for transportation needs other than our road system?

“GPS technology could provide an intriguing alternative to the gas tax. Marshall reports that the Oregon transportation department and Oregon State University have equipped some cars with GPS devices that can record all roads a car uses and charge drivers accordingly.”

[RWC] Yeah, I want the government tracking my every move. Why not just implant everyone with a GPS chip at birth?

“Because it is a user fee, it ‘has enormous potential and would be the fairest way of paying for roads,’ Marshall contends.”

[RWC] Referring to this as a “user fee” instead of a tax is a joke. Whether you call it a user fee or a tax, the more you drive the more you pay.

I can already hear the first objection from liberals. Since all users would be charged the same rate, liberals would call it “regressive.” For it to be fair to the Times and its fellow travelers, I’d be willing to bet they’d demand a scheme in which the tax would depend on the person’s income and the size and loaded weight of his vehicle. To be really fair, we’d also need to know the number of vehicle occupants so everyone pays a consistent “user fee” per passenger-mile. Oops, there’s the liberal justification for implanting a GPS chip in everyone. <g>

“We’re not arguing for or against GPS devices. Rather, we’re using it to show how 21st century technology should make us rethink our 19th century tax system from top to bottom.”

[RWC] Here’s my summary of how I believe the Times believes taxes should work. All taxes should be collected by the federal government and only from the “richest” Americans.