Thread: Vehicle Taxes Per Mile Driven: Do you feel deceived?

Originally Posted by myyams

Kim, I like to drive on good roads...and I pay tolls on lots of them. And as pointed out in the original article, basically after getting the tolls on some roads to pay for them, and being promised they'd be taken off, they kept them on out of their own justifications.

I am really upset because in the county my mom lives in they are closing schools, criminals get away with pettier crimes because they don't have money to pursue them, and people are lacking healthcare. The same people who obviously aren't able to support their counties are going to be taxed on how much they drive. Another tax when people are barely making it. YET we are sending money to Egypt. I want to know HOW we can send money to Egypt but can't keep up our roads and health? I am probably feeling emotional about this.

I agree with Audra that your issue is really government misspending. I think we all have opinions on how the government could better spend their money, and there is a lot of disagreement on what to save and what to cut. But in the meanwhile....I don't want our roads to deteriorate, our bridges to become unsafe. If we need to make more sacrifices for this, then i think we should and find other targets for inappropriate tax hikes. Since we can't fix the current budget in one swoop....we may have to endure things we'd rather not to ensure they don't fail us. At least that's the way I look at it.

Not this time around but last year we had a couple of items on the ballot for government spending. I said no to all of them except for the one looking to get grants/money to fix our bridges. I know that money has to come from somewhere....but if that is my only option on how to get it done right now, then thats how I'm going to get it done because its too important to me.

And, like you, i will continue to moan and groan about how the government misspends money in all sorts of places.

I think that bridges and highways are expenses that our tax money should be covering. Though I think the taxes we are spending now should more than cover it if we would cut things that we shouldn't be spending money on. We don't have a taxing problem, we have a spending problem.

I see what you are trying to say but what I meant was that each state sets its own gas tax which is why some places are cheaper than others so how is that deceit by the federal gov't?

I don't see what the issue is. You bought a car that doesn't use as much gas so you are saving on gas purchases as well as giving our atmosphere a break with pollutants but you are now mad that you still have to pay for the roads you drive on in said car?

I pay gas taxes every time I fill my tank. I pay an excise tax to the town each year for my car (well cars). I pay tolls on roads that are toll roads but I don't go on them often. I don't complain that the gov't is trying to deceive me.

Originally Posted by Spacers

I feel a lot better about VMT than I do about car registration fees being based on the value of your car. I never understood why my sister, who drives nearly 100K miles per year, paid the exact same amount to register her car as I did, and I rarely put even 10K on mine. She's using the roads ten times more than me, and causing more wear & tear on the roads than I am, so she *should* have to pay more for using them. That makes a whole lot of sense to me.

Yeah we have an excise tax here in Maine. I just paid $860 to register our new van....ouch. I do know that our excise tax law here is very old, from the beginning of the 1920s. My guess is back then maybe the amount people drove didn't vary quite so much from person to person?

It would seem to me that mileage would make more sense. However, i know for us at least, the money goes to my local town, not the state. I really wonder how much in-town mileage varies from one person to another, probably doesn't vary as much as overall mileage. Of course there is no good way to calculate that.

I mean if i drive 100,000 miles a year, I'm likely tearing up someone elses roads, yet my excise tax goes directly to my town anyway. Not sure how it works where you live.

Originally Posted by boilermaker

How else would you propose paying for road/highway/bridge maintenance? Use tax seems the most reasonable to me....

It seems your issue is with the larger budget? Money spent elsewhere? Is that your debate question?

I agree with this. I still don't get what the real debate question is, and I'm not being snarky.

Originally Posted by KimPossible

Yeah we have an excise tax here in Maine. I just paid $860 to register our new van....ouch. I do know that our excise tax law here is very old, from the beginning of the 1920s. My guess is back then maybe the amount people drove didn't vary quite so much from person to person?

It would seem to me that mileage would make more sense. However, i know for us at least, the money goes to my local town, not the state. I really wonder how much in-town mileage varies from one person to another, probably doesn't vary as much as overall mileage. Of course there is no good way to calculate that.

I mean if i drive 100,000 miles a year, I'm likely tearing up someone elses roads, yet my excise tax goes directly to my town anyway. Not sure how it works where you live.

Excise is town too here. I figured it all worked out in the end. If I drive mostly to 2 towns over...they still have to pay their excise tax for the roads.

Originally Posted by Jessica80

I see what you are trying to say but what I meant was that each state sets its own gas tax which is why some places are cheaper than others so how is that deceit by the federal gov't?

I don't see what the issue is. You bought a car that doesn't use as much gas so you are saving on gas purchases as well as giving our atmosphere a break with pollutants but you are now mad that you still have to pay for the roads you drive on in said car?

I pay gas taxes every time I fill my tank. I pay an excise tax to the town each year for my car (well cars). I pay tolls on roads that are toll roads but I don't go on them often. I don't complain that the gov't is trying to deceive me.

The Feds get their share too.

What is the United States national gas tax rate?
The United States federal excise tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon (cpg) and 24.4 cents per gallon (cpg) for diesel fuel. On average, as of April 2012, state and local taxes add 31.1 cents to gasoline and 30.2 cents to diesel for a total US average fuel tax of 49.5 cents (cpg) per gallon for gas and 54.6 cents per gallon (cpg) for diesel.

What are the specific taxes for each state?
Some states charge an excise tax while other states have a flat tax. The below table displays state taxes plus fees, plus the 18.4 cents-per-gallon (cpg) federal excise tax. Additionally, some local counties may additionally charge an excise tax on gas, which is not reflected in this table. Please consult your specific local government for more information.

National and State Gas Taxes (Fuel Taxes) in the United States - GasPriceWatch.com

But again, what was presented in the article is state tax..no?

Originally Posted by Jessica80

But again, what was presented in the article is state tax..no?

It also mentions raising the Federal gas tax.

So raising the federal gas tax doesn't hurt people who bought electric cars. It hurts us that didn't. Where is the deceit there? It would really seem like the fed. gov't is pushing me towards a car that doesn't require as much gas as my mini-van.

The tax on the cars in the article is state tax.