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There is not a person among us who has not endured a rant about how SUV owners should pay an extra tax for the damage that their gas-guzzling, road wrecking, child endangering, shameful monstrosity of a vehicle does to the rest of us. Some of us might have even been the perpetrators of such a rant. But could the idea actually come to pass?
If Governor Deval Patrick gets his way, maybe. The Globe reports that the Patrick administration is considering charging a higher registration fee for cars with lower gas mileage. Along with higher gas taxes, it's a plan to save the Commonwealth's crumbling infrastructure without charging exorbitant new tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike. But it's also a satisfying way to punish people that environmental types have long found annoying: SUV drivers. So, would you like a side of moralizing along with your highway bailout? [Globe]
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that'd be one way to offset the hummer incentive created by tracking mileage instead of taxing gas.
SUV drivers already pay more in gasoline taxes since they have to purchase more fuel. This proposed tax doesn't have anything to do with what's "right" or "fair" they are simply a money-grab.
"But it's also a satisfying way to punish people that environmental types have long found annoying: SUV drivers. So, would you like a side of moralizing along with your highway bailout?"
No, I would not. Nor was I aware that such an action was an appropriate way for a government to act. Who gets to decide which targeted group of people are next to be punished? Oh that's right, our freaking crooked MA legislature. Fantastic.
Our Founding Fathers would not approve, and neither do I.