Point of View: Mileage Tax

LOS ANGELES, CA (FOX 11) - Governor Brown, you have publicly acknowledged the mounting $59 billion road and bridge repair backlog…unfortunately, you are just four years too late.

This neglect is an embarrassment.

You recently tried proposing new taxes that were a political non-starter.

Now, you are looking for other answers…a magic bullet, so to speak, to fix our roads.

Pursuant to legislation you signed, 5000 drivers are no participating in a pilot program that could pave the way for a mileage based vehicle tax on all California drivers.

In other words, the more you drive, the more you would be taxed.

The idea is a disaster waiting to happen.

How many more government intrusions do we have to bear?

How many more taxes are we going to have to pay?

Government tracking our mileage is an attack on privacy.

What we should be doing about the $59 billion shortfall is to more efficiently spend the billions that we are already paying in taxes.

It is unbelievable that no significant dollars were allocated for road repair in your $113 billion budget.

This is where the money should come from, not the new taxes you have proposed.

Also, funds should be used from the billions in Cap and Trade surplus considering highway repair would reduce drive time, thereby limiting carbon dioxide emissions.

Governor Brown, you have the money to fix our roads and highways right now.

We do not need to consider impractical big government solutions like the mileage tax.

Now is the time to take positive action.

Thanks for listening.

I'd like to hear your Point of View. You can email me directly at pov@fox11.com

Bob Cook
VP and General Manager, FOX 11

The views expressed are not necessarily those of the station or its employees.

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