Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A Taxing Problem

While we chat about Barry Road, did you see the article about roads in yesterday's KC Star? The economy, fuel efficient cars and just plain lower use have begun to take a toll on tax revenue, beginning at the federal level. Cars like the Chevy Volt, which use little or no gasoline, pose a serious threat to road tax revenue. My company car is a Camry Hybrid, nice vehicle, which runs on battery quite a bit on short trips. Battery operation means fewer trips to Quick Trip, less taxes paid to the various taxing entities. (Don't forget Gene's idea of going all-electric for boats on the lake as well). Solution?

The University of Iowa has received an extension of a grant to continue the investigation of pay by the mile. High tech approach= GPS devices account for miles driven which then could used to calculate a road tax (should have bought Garmin stock a long time ago). Alternate methods include the low tech method which would be a speedometer check from one point in time to another and calculate mileage...and taxes.

So the times they are a changing. Pay by the bag garbage service, Pay by the flush sewer service and Pay by the mile car/truck taxes. What's the adage about death and taxes? Me, I'm taking a bike ride around the lake.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

A few years ago some brainless politician introduced legislation for vote to charge/tax people per email. This was to offset the diminished revenues of USPS. Voted hands down. So if someone is going to introduce legislation to charge by the mile, it's NOT going to go well with the public and seriously doubt it will be voted in.

Anonymous said...

Not true.. never voted on and never happened

Check Snopes ,Urban Legends or Hoax busters before you pass on a hoax as fact to others.

It only takes a minute to fact check

http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/bill602p.asp

Anonymous said...

Snopes ,Urban Legends or Hoax are not the "bible". Get your facts straight.

Anonymous said...

I am open to the facts

Who was the brainless politician?

Anonymous said...

Was it Sarah Palin, Dub Ya , Michele Bachmann Jim Inhofe or Marsha Blackburn?

All have a history of brainlessness

Anonymous said...

Mike,
You better be careful they may start charging you a per peddle fee when you ride your bike instead of driving a car. Or start charging a per step fee for walking!~!

Anonymous said...

Right you sound like Michele Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn

Who throw out the same lets start a revolution before "they " go to far and its to late.

You owe alot of taxes because they spent it

mike moratz said...

Another solution could be Hot Air Balloons...lots of hot air here, it's cheap, eco-friendly (for the most part), and not noisy (discounting the fact that clinking champagne glasses overhead could be a nuisance...but then we have a committee for that already).

Anonymous said...

Here is some hot air

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/rush-limbaugh-trying-encourage-militry coup