By Hasso Hering
Commentary | Posted: Sunday, January 4, 2009 12:00 am
From all over the country, on-line readers have weighed in on the report in last Sunday's paper about Oregon's efforts to find an alternative to the gas tax. While it is gratifying to see so many people taking an interest in Oregon's problems, they are unduly alarmed.
As reported, Oregon has experimented to find a convenient way to keep track of and charge for the miles that cars are driven, and it has shown that a system based on the Global Positioning System can work.
Much of the concern is based on that aspect, the satellite navigation part. Nobody wants the government to know - or be able to check - where they have been or where they are at any particular time.
So how about cell phones? Can't they be tracked already, at least to the vicinity of the transmission towers that last handled signals from a particular phone? Wasn't it that ability to trace the whereabouts of a cell phone that narrowed down the search for a San Francisco family lost in the Coast Range in December 2006?
In contrast, the system tested in Oregon allows no tracking at all for the simple reason that the units counting the mileage do not emit any signals at all. What they do is receive radio signals from three or four navigation satellites, enabling them to calculate how far they are driven between readings.
Technology marches on, of course, and it's conceivable that in some dark future the government or some quasi-governmental corporation will find it useful to track the comings and goings of citizens or employees. Some companies already keep track of their vehicles used on the job. But that's a whole different kind of thing. Oregon's mileage counters can't be tracked.
Why mess with this idea at all? Why get so many people so anxious? Why even look for an alternative to the gas tax, which has proved useful and easy to administer as a way to raise money for roads?
Because sooner or later, the gas tax will have outlived its usefulness for newer-model vehicles.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski has been talking to car makers in his effort to promote vehicles to run on something other than gas. The governor's office says that Nissan, for example, plans to come out with an all-electric vehicle in 2010. Other car makers have similar plans. These vehicles are likely to cost more than conventional ones, so the wealthiest among us will buy them for some or all of their driving.
Imagine the picture: High income earners will be scooting around the Oregon road system for free, while the rest of us, not nearly so well heeled, will be stuck with paying for roads for them as well as for us. How long would voters accept such inequality among taxpayers?
The GPS mileage tax is far from a sure thing. Many pesky details have to be worked out. It may turn out that a different way of keeping track of mileage would do the job without all the fuss.
But there's nothing wrong with continuing the experiment and working on the idea.
It was in 2001 that the legislature established a "road user fee task force" to look for a better way of paying for roads. Oregon has done the country a favor by having the courage to look far ahead. (hh)