Tax on top of Tax on top of Tax! The San Diego Association of Governments aka SANDAG is sandbagging the public with an onerous and outrageous tax plan.
The decision by SANDAG to tax motorists per mile is the most ridiculously conceived decision in many years. This was more than thoughtless and appears simply a way to increase funding, while leaving those who must depend on motor vehicle transportation on the hook to pay for those who do not
The premise for this tax is they don’t receive enough in motor fuel tax so they need more money. Wait a minute; wasn’t the State of California one of, if not the first, to push for improved fuel mileage for cars? And when the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) improved, now SANDAG complains it reduced their tax intake? And was the State not the first to press for electric vehicles? And now those vehicles don’t use motor fuel so SANDAG believes it’s time to increase taxes for everyone?
1. Unincorporated area and rural residents will be the major fall guys for this tax. In many areas we have no public transit available and must drive distances to schools, shopping, doctors and the necessities of life. This equates to an “inconvenience tax” because we have no public transit conveniences available. Imagine living in Bonsall, Fallbrook, Rainbow, unincorporated North and East County or many other areas and the driving distances required just for daily living.
2. Residents have to drive children to schools because most of the county has no school bus transportation for other than disabled children. This becomes an “Education Tax” for thousands of parents.
3. What about the disabled and senior citizens who require use of a vehicle simply to exist? Adding yet another burden on many who barely can afford day to day expenses.
4. What about people who must drive for work or drive for a living. Some drive several thousand miles a month or more, and will be required to ante up a thousand dollars a year in road taxes?
5. What about the entire cross border traffic coming into San Diego County? How will you force those drivers to pay the tax, or will this yet be another tax where San Diego County residents are forced to pick up the slack for out of country drivers?
6. If you live outside the County but drive into San Diego, how will that fee be collected? And if you live on the periphery of San Diego and another county, will you be taxed simply because you live here yet most mileage is outside the county?
7. How will you collect these taxes from the many thousands of vehicles that are unregistered in California but belong to actual residents? People renew vehicle licenses at addresses out of state to avoid the onerous registration fees in California. People who lease vehicles prior to moving into California have out of state plates for years.
8. What about the tens of thousands of military personnel who have out of state plates legally; how will you collect the taxes from them?
9. Many roads in unincorporated areas are abysmal, yet we pay our taxes like any other area and receive very little for those taxes. SANDAG does nothing to improve those pothole filled roads, and the State touts road improvements by the increased gasoline taxes. We sure don’t see that money being spent here!
10 Does SANDAG really believe the public is so gullible to accept that this new road tax will result in lowered gasoline taxes? The way this is presented is that the new road use tax would be in lieu of gasoline tax. What SANDAG doesn’t say is there is no plan to lower gasoline taxes; this is to make up for the huge push for electric vehicles that do not use motor fuels and still the moror fuel taxes will be paid by motorists driving conventional vehicles. Taxes in California only go skyward, never lowered, as “fees” that do not require voter approval are passed time and again to bypass the public vote. Reduce a “fee” or tax and then it gets raised again in what appears an exponential manner.
California was known as the “Golden State” but that glow has tarnished. The Golden Bear of yore has been replaced by the “Golden Goose” of taxation, but these increases will, as the story goes, kill that Golden Goose one day, perhaps sooner than later. Then where will the greedy governmental entities reach for more money?
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