79- . No, too punitive for some (516 Votes)
- . OK, but only if gas tax is eliminated (362 Votes)
- . Yes, funds needed (152 Votes)
This is not a scientific poll — results reflect only the opinions of those voting.
Big Q
Do you favor the state taxing motorists based on the number of miles they drive, to bolster the highway repair fund?
Comments (26)
By participating in online discussions you acknowledge that you have agreed to the Terms of Service. An insightful discussion of ideas and viewpoints is encouraged, but comments must be civil and in good taste, with no personal attacks. If your comments are inappropriate, you may be banned from posting. Report comments if you believe they do not follow our guidelines.
Having trouble with comments? Learn more here.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Both the gas tax and a mileage tax penalize the residents who live far from downtown and have a much longer commute to work. These are primarily the people who can only afford to live far out and along with suffering in horrendous traffic congestion for many miles they also have to pay extra taxes to drive the long distance. For west side residents, rail is the equalizer to improve their transportation situation.
Carpool! End of story!
Those who chose to live far from town are guilty of excessively polluting the planet and adding to global warming. They also clog the roads.
Its not like they have a choice. Our first home was in Mililani town as it was the only place we could afford. This was 40 years ago. It has only gotten worse. Not everyone is as rich as you Alllaha and can live in town.
Both the gas tax and a mileage tax penalize the residents who live far from downtown and have a much longer commute to work. These are primarily the people who can only afford to live far out and along with suffering in horrendous traffic congestion for many miles they also have to pay extra taxes to drive the long distance. For west side residents, rail has to be the equalizer to improve their transportation situation.
uku – More shibai as usual, your standard when it has to do with rail.
People choose to live where it is most economical for them. Further out you live, cheaper the housing. Not everyone living far out have to drive into town. Many work on Schofield or businesses on the way into town.
People also tend to buy very efficient cars when they know driving long distance is the rule. As in hybrids, Prius, etc, so commuting is not that expensive.
Rail riders will not be able to do errands after work as drivers do. Can’t stop at Costco, Sam’s Club, other places on the way home with rail. Frequent power and maintenance failures, striking rail union workers, will shut rail down. Riders will have find alternative ways home, realize rail was never meant to ease commuting.
Unfortunately everyone in the Nei will be hit with higher taxes to pay for rail’s crushing monthly O&M costs. Estimated between $20-50 million per month, yearly increases. Property taxes will be going up, taxes taking away from the quality of life for everyone.
In school, our children and grandchildren will study how their parents were so easily misled about rail. How there was never professional management, tens of millions wasted, how the Nei willfully failed to prevent the mistakes of history.
Agitate and repeat, agitate and repeat… that’s ALL the have ukuBS????
You’re a sorry sack of S * H ~ i – T
Sorry for the repeat. The first post appeared to not go through.
How can mileage possibly be tracked unless being reported by the driver? if it is tied into how much gas one buys and if your miles per gallon is high, you pay less than someone driving just as far or using the roads just as much who has poor gas mileage. And how would EVs fit into this as they don’t use any gas at all?
Annual safety check records mileage.
Actually the fine black art of rolling back odometers will be resurrected in the Nei. For a cash only fee, no records, you too can have your odometer rolled back to lower numbers.
Others will have their odometer disconnected for a few months, then reconnected.
GPS motion sensors can be spoofed with a plug in device to make the unit think it is attached to your car. GPS will think your car is parked in the garage.
Just another day in the Nei.
Exactly my thoughts when I first read the article.
Here’s a solution: find out who’s idea this was and vote his rear end OUT in November.
EGGS ZACHARY!!!
Sounds like one of the genius measures put forth by our mentally challenged city council…
Bumba, it’s the entire Legislature and Administration approving electric cars. Now, they must find a way to tax the electricity used for each vehicle as they recharge their electric vehicle. Funny that our great legislature did not anticipate this challenge, when they are always looking for revenues from taxes.
They want to change the method so the end result will be a “new” formula that will tax ALL more in the end and we won’t be able to tell.
We can talk about silly methods AFTER the State EXPLAINS WHY we are ALREADY taxed MORE than other states by far when looking at tax revenue/miles per road and the revenue they ALREADY mismanage.
Hey Allaha – we live farther out cause we got less money. Now you’re going to take even more of it? West side folks are already paying for your new WATER LINES with our water bill and surcharge. Now we have to pay for your train that doesn’t even go where we need it to.
Rather than change the whole tax structure, tax electric and hybrid cars by the mile so they pay their share.
Sounds like a Hawaii thing.
Pay to play. User fees can be very fair.
One thing about the present method is that it is a simple and easy way to collect tax. You pay the tax every time you buy gas. Tying it to miles driven would be too complicated and cumbersome for the state to handle. And guaranteed not everyone will pay their fair share as there will be ways to get around it.
No, use the 1 billion dollar surplus to fix the roads instead of paying for public union raises.
The problem with tax revenue in the State of Hawaii has never been linked to “representation”, it is a matter of knowing where the tax dollars actually go. Cost overruns, work order changes are okay but are rampant and expected to pad too many bottom lines for state projects.
An independent investigation need to be conducted on the State Department of Transportation. In a recent survey, there are 10 States that has the highest gasoline tax rates on their citizen. Hawaii is ranked number “5” at 60.39 cents per gallon. To me that amounts of millions of dollars. Yet this department say they are short of funds to repair the roads. How many times in the last 5 years have they requested an increase fuel tax to repair the roads. The roads still look bad. So where all the money that came from the fuel tax have gone?
I am just presuming that the Democrats have taken millions from this fund to take care their pet projects or union government workers benefits.
Flashing back to the Hurricane fund that was funded by every property owner in this State. It has been depleted and no one knows where the money has gone. The money was not returned to the property owners here.
The Democrat control State government (they have been control since we became a State in 1959) are guilty of mismanaging our tax dollars. Yet was it earlier this year that our Democratic Governor wanted to raise the fuel tax as well as the State vehicle weight tax.
I’d like to see every Democrat incumbant in the legislature be voted out of office this November 2016. But this is only wishful thinking. Unless the citizens of this State wakeup as to what the greedy Democrats are doing to our pocket book, you can bet they will have a fuel tax increase and vehicle tax increase in the 2017 State legislature – after this year’s election.
What idiot proposed that anyway???????
In the first place, there ain’t so many miles one can drive in Hawaii, knuckleheads!
What, you guys trying to fatten your wallets with some other unscrupulous dealings?
Wake up Hawaii!!!!!! Clean out all those scumbags oready!
Learn, and take action! Don’t let those copycat crooks (not all are) pull the wool over your eyes anymore!
Isn’t it about time you fellow residents get the broom!
Start now! Before things worse…….
Click! The sound of speedometers being disconnected, at least on older vehicles. And a cottage industry in jacking laptops into the on-board computer and changing the mileage counter.