DC Seeks $4.8 Billion Transportation User Tax

First of all, Washington, DC "city" government squanders millions of dollars that Congress, and their own gas tax (one of the highest in the country) brings in, BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! Now they want to put a transponder in your car to track where and how far you drive and where you go...Big Brother is alive and well in DC.

"A comprehensive road-use pricing initiative in the Washington metropolitan area would be an extremely ambitious experiment," Brookings Institution authors Benjamin K. Orr and Alice M. Rivlin explained in a policy paper designed to garner the interest of regional authorities. "Leadership and upfront investment from the federal government would also be essential to get the experiment off the ground and ensure comprehensive implementation. Some recent indications of interest at the federal level suggest that this might be possible. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has recently stated that, due to the failure of the Manhattan congestion pricing initiative, the US Department of Transportation still has funds available for pilot congestion pricing programs."

"Vehicles would be fitted with a GPS transponder device similar to an E-ZPass, perhaps as part of the registration process," Orr and Rivlin explained. "This device would record the type of vehicle, the distance traveled, and the time and location of travel." Despite the privacy issues, DC officials insist that tolling is necessary for making up for the shortfall in gasoline tax revenues. The proposed mileage tax would solve this problem by increasing motorist taxation levels by a factor of ten. The additional revenue would be diverted to spending on buses and rail service.

"State gas taxes raise approximately $420 million in the Washington urbanized area every year," Orr and Rivlin wrote. "Revenues from the road-use pricing scheme described above would be between $2.96 billion and $4.79 billion, depending on the average fee.

I live in the "DC Metropolitan Planning Area" and I have 2 words for this entire transponder idea: F--k You!!! If you bureaucrats didn't waste so much money (just look at any county/state road crews...8 guys standing around, 2 guys ACTUALLY working...then you wouldn't need another FIVE BILLION DOLLARS!