Oregon Governor, Ted Kulongoski, has proposed a new tax to raise money for the state’s roads by implementing a mileage tax, tracked through GPS.  The proposal is in response to people driving less and demanding more fuel efficient cars.

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.”

“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.”

So, in order to receive the refund, there has to be a wireless connection somewhere to know how much fuel you put into the tank and to receive a discount.  Yet, they aren’t tracking where a person is when they fill up their tank.  Exactly how can you receive a discount or refund if they do not know where you are getting the gas from?

Since ODOT will have no involvement in developing, installing, or maintaining the devices, how are they to know that they aren’t being tampered with?    How can they tell if there was really 10 gallons put into the tank and not 8?  How can they discern if someone has hacked the system and tracking their girlfriend?

This is a terrible idea for two reasons.  First, GPS can be “turned off” with a little bit of tin foil placed over the antenna or the signal could be jammed.  Second, you are charged per mile.  Even though an SUV and other heavy trucks do more damage to roads than a small car, such as a Toyota Yaris, they will be charged the same rate.  Therefore, owners of smaller, more economical vehicles will be paying more to maintain the roads than they heavy, road-destroying, gas guzzlers.

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 devices will cost a lot of money and the state of Oregon is going to, eventually, force car manufacturers into putting GPS devices permanently into cars, yet this is still, somehow, not an invasion of privacy?  The current gas tax will not be eliminated however, as the governor plans to implement a two cent rise in the current tax.

Claiming that it might take about $20 million is disingenuous.  After that money is used to get the program established, the tax payers will also have to pay for installing GPS in their cars, installation of GPS monitors in gas stations, and hiring and paying people to monitor the system for fraud.

A more simple and less costly alternative is to use the odometer that is already in cars to track mileage.  GPS is expensive and, if a person chooses not to have it, would be a forced invasion of privacy.  The tax on gas could also be raised to solve the same problem.  It’s just easier, politically, to force tracking on people than to raise taxes, despite the fact that raising taxes is exactly what they are doing.  It probably also has nothing to do with the fact that one of Garmin‘s two US offices is based in Salem, Oregon.