Here it is, caroadcharge.com – it’s new on me:
- This thing is a gonna supplement or replace the current state gasoline scheme…
…which has California drivers (who of course already pay the highest gasoline prices in the land) paying the highest state gasoline taxes, 61.2 cents per gallon, and oh yeah sales tax on top of that) in the land, right? So why isn’t this new thing called a tax? Oh it’s not a tax, it’s a actually a fee? Oh, it’s not called a fee, because the “oh it’s not a tax it’s just a fee” argument has worn itself out over the years? Oh, it’s a “charge?” OK, I see what you did there, CT. But…
…isn’t road charging already used to describe something totally different?
And now on to 2. Equities and Fairness. You know what chews up roads? Semi trucks, big rigs, 18 wheelers, and tractor trailers, call them what you will, and other large trucks. Now Caltrain (everybody calls Caltrain Caltrans, but nobody ever calls Caltrans Caltrain, you know, more or less – it really makes you think) will say that “…trucks pay weight fees…,” but do they pay enough? I’d say no. So there’s that.
And then there are ppl living out in the sticks who basically drive everywhere vs. me, who, let’s see, within a mile or so has two Safeways, a Lucky, a Trader Joe’s, a Whole Foods and another on the way, a Target (with high prices, but that’s the City Target biz model oh well), major hospitals, bus lines, light rail, restaurants, museums, gardens, etc. That is hardly equitable, sir.
No no.
All right CT, I’ll agree that you need to get your money from some place, but lots of luck getting Road Charge…
…off the ground anytime soon…
