

California Community Mulls Driving Tax Amid Privacy Concerns - sologoub
http://www.insideline.com/car-news/california-community-mulls-driving-tax-amid-privacy-concerns.html

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droithomme
It's OK everybody, the police, authorities, government agencies, insurance
companies and corporate partners won't have access to these detailed records
without either a warrant, probable cause, reasonable suspicion, a good reason,
an ongoing investigation, to rule you out from an investigation, or general
curiosity. Also the data is going to be secured using all the latest secure
security, so you can be secure in the knowledge it's as securely secure as
secure can be. Nothing at all to be worried about. Unless you have something
to hide that is. Those who have something to hide can register their
complaints in writing in person at the Ministry of Homeland Secure Security,
Obedience and Compliance. Be sure to bring your Show Me Card or other
sanctioned federal identity documents.

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csense
Of course, the system will always be used for only its intended purpose,
administering the gas tax, and future political bodies will never expand its
scope to catch terrorists, child abductors, illegal immigrants, hate criminals
like Chic-Fil-A's president, deadbeat dads, Occupy protestors, Wikileaks
contributors, people with unpaid parking tickets...

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protomyth
If you want to tax cars more, up the gas tax which already affects people who
drive SUVs more than small cars. Risking this level of abuse of the 5th
amendment is just not worth the cost.

This type of tax is also about as anti-poor people as you can get. Any big tax
that hits all at once is a killer.

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marquis
That was my thought exactly: are gas taxes nothing more than 'per mile' taxes?
Just raise those, gas is already cheaper in California than many places. Of
course, it would be nice if that money were to go directly into funding full
cover public transport for those who will no longer be able to afford to get
to their low-paid job 50 miles away.

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csense
Over the long term, the gas tax encourages a change in consumption patterns.
Take a job closer to home, move closer to your work, or telecommute more.

Per-mile tax does exactly the same thing, but with a ton of invasive
technological monitoring.

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kevinpet
It will provide a good example for oppressive governments worldwide. "Sure, we
may arbitrarily prohibit you from leaving your hometown, but at least we don't
monitor your every move like California."

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binarycrusader
The only way I'm willing to accept further taxes on driving is when California
actually has real public transit coverage across the entire state. Until then,
driving is the best option for many individuals.

There are large sections of even the more highly populated areas of California
(like the bay area) that are not served by public transit, or are inadequately
served by it (for example, Gilroy has only three trains per day during the
week and none on the weekend/holidays).

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smsm42
There are different definitions of "covered" too. I have a bus stop 2 minutes
from my home, and next to my work. So I would be considered "covered", right?
Only thing it's 20 minute drive and 2 hour bus ride with 2 changes and some of
the routes don't operate the whole day, as you pointed out. So if I have
choice of spending 4 hours of my life per day in buses and having next to zero
mobility (if I need to go somewhere else before or after work I'm out of luck,
that may make 2 hours into 3 or 4 hours commute) - against just hopping into a
car and be done in 20 minutes, no way I will even consider public transport as
an option. It may be fine for a big highly urbanized city (I've always
preferred public transport when going to San Francisco, for example) but for
something like the rest of Silicon Valley it's not even funny how bad it is.

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evmar
This appears so far to be a teapot tempest -- just an item in list of
potential options.

For what it's worth, Oregon is much closer to implementing such a thing, with
much hand-wringing over the real privacy issues but also (according to one
article I read) a bill ready for the 2013 legislature.

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malandrew
Putting GPS in a car to measure distance traveled is like putting cameras in
your home pointed at your kitchen and bathroom sinks, shower and washing
machine in order to measure water consumption.

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pavel_lishin
Wouldn't it make more sense to install tamper-resistant odometers on cars, and
measure them like gas or electric meters?

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ktsmith
Actually that wouldn't make sense. The reason being is the tax is only valid
in a specific geographic location. Employing GPS based tracking allows the
city/county to tax only for the miles driven within its boundaries, which is
going to be the only area it has the authority to levy a tax within.

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alexqgb
This is why property tax makes so much sense at the local level. It doesn't
hit people who pass through without making any commercial exchanges, but if
they work or buy, then the establishments involved include the local rates in
their prices.

