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Think it's 2006? In Oregon, it's 1984.
Via Drudge.

Gas tax on miles, not gallons, tested

PORTLAND, Ore., March 25 (UPI) -- Oregon is testing the idea of collecting highway funds through a tax on miles driven, rather than gasoline consumed.

Eighty percent of Oregon's highway money comes from its 24-cents-per-gallon gas tax. If the state promotes reducing gasoline consumption and consumers tend to buy the fuel-efficient vehicles, including hybrids, highway revenues would take a hit, The New York Times reported.
So they don't really want people to drive less or buy fuel-efficient cars, unless they can still get their baksheesh.

The test program uses a global positioning system to track miles driven, using a black box to calculate how many miles are clocked in-state, out of state and during rush hour.
If the citizens of Oregon accept this shit, they deserve it. As far as I'm concerned, it's none of the state's fucking business where and how far I drive.

The experiment is designed to increase state revenue for road maintenance without raising gasoline taxes, but critics say collecting GPS records poses new privacy issues.

"The existence of such a database, which would, for the first time in history, allow for the creation of detailed daily itineraries of every driver, raises obvious privacy concerns," said David L. Sobel, general counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a civil liberties group in Washington.

What are these commie-wannabes going to do about people driving in from out of state - meet them at the border with a gps? Is there something in the water out there that makes them fucking nuts? Pfui.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-03-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=146658