Fuel Efficiency Is Bad News For State Governments

Business News/Analysis, Opinions, Policy, Vermont

January 25, 2013

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(EconMatters/Business Insider) … But it looks like what may be good for the environment, is actually bad news for the government.

You see, for each gallon of gasoline or diesel we gas up in our cars, there’s a portion of tax that goes to the state government to fund the building and maintenance of roads and bridges. So unfortunately, more fuel efficiency and less driving even by carpooling means less tax revenue for the government, and the green car is also to blame.

…Separately, a 2011 study by the J.D. Power and Associates projects major growth, as much as 10%, of vehicles with fuel-efficient technologies by 2016, which would represent a four-fold increase in the sales numbers for green cars compared to 2010.

If these are realistic forecasts, then don’t be surprised to see a Big Brother GPS inside every vehicle in the country as Vermont Transportation Secretary Brian Searles indicated,

“….. calculating how much of a VMT tax is owed would be done through the global positioning system devices that are expected to be standard equipment [capable of tracking location, time] in cars later this decade.”

I personally can’t even begin to count the possible number of privacy concerns having a government GPS inside my car, not to mention the additional resource tracking and collecting this new mileage tax would require, and I thought the U.S. Federal and state government has had enough funding problems already? READ MORE

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