I think we're missing the point behind the proposed 'hybrid tax' on high mileage vehicles. We're thinking like consumers, and not like a bureaucracy. Yes, it's desirable to use less fuel and pollute less, so lets set up a tax break to encourage high mileage cars. But, this results in less tax coming in on gasoline, so let's recoup that by making a special tax on the high mileage vehicles. This is the perfect bureaucratic solution. It makes us look good ecologically, but it also does not cut the government income. What it does is set up two bureaucracies to cancel each other out. This means double the rules, twice the paperwork, and an increase in the number of bureaucrats employed, while changing absolutely nothing. Voila, the perfect bureaucratic solution. Ingenious
Folks are way overreacting. Chamber Suggests Taxing Hybrids and Billing Driver, Source:The Associated Press News Service This is just a RECOMMENDATION by a non-government organization. It has, to date, ZERO legislators on record supporting or expressing interest in sponsoring legislation to implement this. It will be forgotten by next week.
Seems like a bonehead idea, and bonehead ideas have a way of becoming law. Will it be ALL hybrids, including the ones that only get 2 more MPGs than the non-hybrid? That'd go over swell. Kill an industry rather than let it cost you tax money to hire nephews who can't get other jobs. No, only the ones arbitrarily decided to be costing the government money due to infrequent fuel purchases? Ummmm, that sounds like discrimination. Where's that Equal Protection clause gotten to?...
There was similar talk when the first gas crisis hit and automakers started making better mileage cars. The basic idea was that since cars were getting better mileage, the federal gas tax would suffer. So there were proposals to tax based on the number of miles you drove per year. That evens out the difference between SUV and econo box. Recently, someone in California suggested the same thing ... put a tracking GPS in every car, and record the mileage, sending a bill to each driver each month. I think its an atrocious idea. If you cannot reduce the size of government and do with less money, just raise the gas tax. Then you encourage more conservation, which is a good thing in and of itself.
