More Taxes on the Way: Invasive GPS in Oregon Cars, Other States May Follow
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on December 30, 2008
By Vicki McClure Davidson * Frugal Café Blog Zone
George Orwell’s chilling futuristic novel 1984, where oppressive government oversight is in all facets of citizens’ lives, seems to be becoming a reality. In Oregon, cars equipped with GPS devices will be able to document amount of miles driven, and from that data, new taxes levied and potentially despotic information about US citizens be gathered. Less freedom, less privacy, less civil liberties, but more money sucked from US citizens could be the outcome, one more step toward totalitarianism. Being frugal at the gas pump is now proving to justify a punitive backlash, with state government taxing more and getting even more into our grills (i.e., in our private business).
What in the heck’s going on in Oregon?
Originally, this was conceived as a method to collect data so as to tax drivers of electric cars (since their cars don’t use gas, the argument was raised, there needed to be a way to tax them to help pay for road service and maintenance, which is what the gas tax reportedly does). However, since the conclusion of the trial run, expanded applications are being discussed to include the device on ALL vehicles and levy the proposed mileage tax on everyone. Even those who drive on logging roads and other unpaved roads that the state does not take care of may end up paying the new tax. Even those people who bought hybrids to save the planet and those who have greatly decreased their gas consumption by driving less. These folks will also be penalized because gas tax revenues have dropped since their environmentally supportive sacrifices are now hurting the state’s coffers.
In an article by Hasso Hering of the Albany Democrat Herald, the following information was released this week:
Kulongoski to pursue mileage tax
A year ago, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced it had demonstrated that a new way to pay for roads — via a mileage tax and satellite technology — could work. Now Gov. Ted Kulongoski says he’d like the legislature to take the next step.
As part of a transportation-related bill he has filed for the 2009 legislative session, the governor says he plans to recommend “a path to transition away from the gas tax as the central funding source for transportation.” What that means is explained on the governor’s website:
“As Oregonians drive less and demand more fuel-efficient vehicles, it is increasingly important that the state find a new way, other than the gas tax, to finance our transportation system.”
According to the policies he has outlined online, Kulongoski proposes to continue the work of the special task force that came up with and tested the idea of a mileage tax to replace the gas tax. The governor wants the task force “to partner with auto manufacturers to refine technology that would enable Oregonians to pay for the transportation system based on how many miles they drive.”The online outline adds: “The governor is committed to ensuring that rural Oregon is not adversely affected and that privacy concerns are addressed.”
When the task force’s study and test were in the news in 2006 and 2007, critics worried that the technology could be used to track where vehicles go, not just how far they travel, and that this information would somehow be stored by the government.
In more than one interview with the Democrat-Herald and others, James Whitty, the ODOT official in charge of the project, tried to assure the public that tracking people’s travels was not in the plans. The task force’s final report came out in November 2007. It was based largely on a field test in which about 300 motorists in the Portland area and two service stations took part over 10 months, ending in March 2007. A GPS-based system kept track of the in-state mileage driven by the volunteers. When they bought fuel, a device in their vehicles was read, and they paid 1.2 cents a mile and got a refund of the state gas tax of 24 cents a gallon.
The final report detailed the technical aspects of the program. It also stressed the issue of privacy. “The concept requires no transmission of vehicle travel locations, either in real time or of travel history,” the report said. “Accordingly, no travel location points are stored within the vehicle or transmitted elsewhere. Thus there can be no ‘tracking’ of vehicle movements.”
Also, the report said, under the Oregon concept of the program, “ODOT would have no involvement in developing the on-vehicle devices, installing them in vehicles, maintaining them or having any other access to them except, perhaps, in situations involving tampering or similar fee evasion activities.”
Equipment for the Oregon test was developed at Oregon State University. Whitty said last year it might take about $20 million to establish that the mileage tax is commercially viable. Eventually, GPS devices would have to start being built into cars, and fueling stations would have to be similarly equipped.
The gas tax would stay in force — Kulongoski has proposed that it be raised 2 cents — for vehicles not equipped to pay the mileage tax.
Concerns about this invasive technology were voiced back in 2006. “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 of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a civil liberties group in Washington.
I’ve not ever considered myself an alarmist. However, this information is disturbing. If this were happening in Cuba, in Russia, in any other oppressive country, there would be no surprise about the government’s desire to monitor its citizens so closely. But here in America? Where freedom of the people has been the foundation of our nation’s greatness? If this were a movie, I’d laugh it off as improbable. But, it’s not a movie.
While concerns are being pooh-poohed by Oregon officials about citizens’ lack of privacy, the reality is that many ideas like this start innocuously enough (or so they seem, if only to test the waters and gently introduce them to American citizens), only to then steadily grow into something more insidious once that first door is cracked open.
Despite what any politician says, GPS technology does indeed have the capability to show exactly where someone is at anytime. Telling us that it won’t be used in that manner has as much credibility as a child promising he won’t – cross his heart – eat that last chocolate chip cookie on the plate when no one else is looking or in the room. Ha!
Big Brother may be watching us all in our cars far sooner than we thought. Some politicians are eying Oregon’s findings and are considering using the GPS technology in their own states to drink at the mileage tax trough. Gotta feed that cash cow, after all.
Oregon’s Citizens: You cannot accept this quietly. You must squash this before it’s too late. If nothing else, read Orwell’s 1984 if you haven’t already. The prophetic message may have resonance in this day and age.
UPDATE on March 19, 2009:
Michelle Malkin: Ugh: GOP Minn. Gov. Pawlenty studying mileage tax, satellite-based tracking
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