Oh my goodness, that sounds awful. If that really does come to fruition then there is something seriously wrong. People DO have to drive further these days to take any job they can, my husband and myself for starters. They already tax our property, we pay state taxes (to fix roads we drive our miles on!!), they tax our wages, tax our fuel, tax our vehicles and insurance AND we pay tolls.... and now taxing the mileage??? Isnt that like double-dipping?? That sounds absolutely insane to me...

If this passes and I owned a new green hybrid, I would be so POed. I heard the tax could be 17c a mile, if you drive 50+ miles a day, you would owe $170 or more in road tax a month! Give us a break AND they aren't talking about getting rid of the gas tax!

What would ever make you think taxing politicians care about what is fair when it comes to sucking up peoples' hard-earned money?!? It's what they think they can get away with without an uproar. Is it "fair" when they pile on taxes to certain select people people knowing they are a minority and the majority will not protest since it does not directly affect them, e.g., smokers, alcohol users, junk food eaters? Politicians will do whatever to get their hands on more money to pass around for votes and power. Eventually, everybody will be bitten. People who don't, say, have a long drive to work will likely just shrug their shoulders and let the politicians go for it. I read this week that the government in Austrailia is thinking about taxing based on the number of times citizens flush their toilets! I think there's a lot of U.S. congressmen who got excited at the news and are watching to see how that goes. :-(

That is a not go. Pure communist and it will not fly here at all.

In most places, people already are taxed by taxes on fuel. And surely a fuel tax, which penalises the environmentally-damaging fuel guzzlers more than economical cars, is surely better than a flat mileage tax. Why should people *not* travel - if they can do so in an environmentally efficient way. A simple mileage tax strikes me as very stupid: put up fuel taxes if you want, but not mileage taxes. Fuel tax is also easier and cheaper to collect, because only a few refineries generate fuel, whereas millions of people generate mileage.

you think thats the only people thats going to hurt? we moved to the boonies to escape the violence and obsurdities of town living. we have no bus service to town, our children have no bus service to school. what about people going out to eat,shopping,vacation or camping trips,visiting family or friends,sports for children. wouldnt an added fuel tax make people NOT want to do these things which in turn would damage local,state and the federal economies even further by detracting,even further, from sales taxes derived from these activities? California,for 40 years has been building and maintaning its roads from fuel taxes derived from commercial vehicles only.and those people have tax after tax after tax after tax imposed on them. excuse me, where has all of the rest of the tax dollars gone? in the last 40 years the number of cars on the road has increased by 60%. but new roads and the expansion of existing roads has only increased by 8%. i could go on and on but i am now worked into a dither. its time for people to wake up and understand that he who has the money controls the country. it wasnt george bush that started this mess. you might remember in 2006 the democrats(liberals), no such thing as a democrat anymore. took control of the house and senate and consumer confidence plummeted like a rock. now with a the most liberal voter EVER as president, it will be a veto free ride to socialism.

First of all, I think this is a poor idea for taxation. That being said, I find the indignation in some of the other answers to be hilarious. "How DARE the government tax us! I have to drive a long way to get to work. That's just not fair!" Of course, such people conveniently overlook that SOMEONE ELSE paid the taxes to build that road that enables them to drive long distances to work. I guess it just goes to show that my theory that the Selfish Bastard Party (party platform: I want all the benefits of a modern government, but I don't want to pay any taxes to support it) is the dominant one in modern politics...:-P...

It is of course a scam in a larger agenda, as most things are. Gasoline consumption is already highly correlated with road usage, so the gas tax is actually quite fair. The real reason for this is not to make taxes more fair, but to get GPS tracking devices into everyone's license plates. Just so the government can know where your car is 24/7.

Yes. And then THEY will fall behind on their mortgage, the banks will refuse to help, and ANOTHER large percentage of people will be in the same bank engeneered financial disaster that a vast portion of Americans were driven into by mortgage resales to crooked companies with no morals, or ethics. But whatever. I no longer give a damn, there is no point in trying to care when none of my elected officials care enough to investigate the REAL cause of this disaster.

Yes, but that's a bad idea because tourism supports the local economy and, yes, even corporate interests (how many times have you had to stop at a Wal-mart on a road trip, if you haven't boycotted them?). If people can't drive, they won't go on road trips. Also, people may lose their jobs because the gas tax will make fuel prices higher than an hourly worker's income. Like most taxes, it is designed to hit the poor. Proponents of the tax will say "get a job closer to home" but finding another job is easier said than done in the current economy.