Bridge tolls, if the revenue goes strictly to operating the bridge, illustrate what’s rational.

Gas taxes, as presently set up, are irrational, because the money goes mostly to the operation of conventional roads, and only a little bit toward the actual cost–that is, burden–of gasoline: Pollution cleanup. There’s less proportionality (a concrete measure of “fairness”)–drivers of gas-guzzlers pay more for using the same amount of road as a Prius driver.

Seems to me that a per-mile operating tax that goes to upkeep of conventional roads would rationalize the entire system. Insert three-legged stool cliche-analogy here.

Gas taxes could be directed toward pollution and climate change mitigation, bridge and ferry tolls pay for the extraordinarily expensive bits of infrastructure, and the per-mile operating tax pays for the conventional roads. In each leg of the stool, your cost is more accurately allocated. Drive a gas-guzzler and pay for the impact with higher gas taxes; use the same amount of road as a Prius and pay the same; and pay the same bridge tolls as a Prius.

Of course, a nitpicker would pick on the fact that Dan’s Grand Am weighs a lot more than the Prius. Sorry, Dan, but what would further rationalize the operating tax is to base it on vehicle weight. We do that now with commercial truck fees, so there’s ample precedent.

How to collect a per-mile tax? Ask the NSA for its stored GPS data lifted from cell phones and vehicle GPS units. Or put bar codes on license plates and scanners at each milepost. Easy-peasy.

State governments are pulling this sort of scam all over the place. The latest one is “privatization” like what our own Governor Scott tried to pull off a few years back.

He proposed selling the State Turnpike, the Ronald Reagan Trail of Tears (a toll road, built and maintained by the taxpayer) to a foreign private company which would be solely responsible for maintaining the road and collecting tolls. The cash payment would be immediately applied to…you guessed it…lowering corporate taxes which would suddenly, miraculously, “create jobs”.

This is real Milo Minderbinder stuff.

It seems to me this is just a way to tax people without taxing gas directly. It’s not going to fool anybody. So what are they going to do, put a mileage meter on each vehicle? If you want to tax people more for driving so you can raise more revenue, just raise the tax on each gallon. The voters will have a chance to respond to the idea at the ballot box, and people will be taxed for the amount of energy they consume and pollution they produce.

People need to stop complaining about taxes. If you think they’re too high, don’t vote for legislators who put them in. But don’t bitch when the roads start getting potholes, either.

You pay for what you get. If the taxes are too high for what you get in return, then either you’re getting excessive or unnecessary services, or there’s corruption and/or inefficiency in government. Either way, its up to the citizenry to vote people in who can fix the problem. Ultimately, its the voter who determines the level of services relative to the amount of taxation.