Taxing Drivers By The Mile

Daniel J. Stern wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Feb 2005, Chris Bessert wrote:
> > assumes that ALL states and provinces would simultaneously adopt
this
> > new high-tech solution to a low-tech problem. If Washington DIDN'T
> > implement such a system after Oregon did, anyone near the border or
> > regularly travel- ing across it would then be incentivized to
simply top
> > off in Oregon (no sales tax on the actual gasoline anymore) and do
as
> > much of their driving on the Washington side as possible (no "per
mile"
> > taxing there). Sounds like a problem.
>
> Not really: they'd just leave the existing gasoline taxes in place
and add
> the new per-mile charges *on top of* them. Problem, er, "solved".

If you pull up to the pump without a transponder (because you're from
out of state or because you've never retrofitted) they'll just add on a
confiscatory additional per-gallon tax. It'll be something in the
order of assuming your car gets X mpg (probably a very high figure),
you're buying Y gallons, so X*Y means you went Z miles. Charge'm.

Nobody ever said a miles fee was to "replace" the existing per-gallon
tax.

I don't know how they'll tell you ahead of time how much your miles tax
will be, so you can be sure to have enough cash on hand.