In an interview with the Seattle Times on June 29th, 2016 Representative DelBene stated she favors a regressive tax-per- mile scheme that will add to our taxes and reduce the incentives to drive high mileage vehicles because every type of vehicle would be taxed per mile driven. Thus, going to work, daycare, and the grocery store will cost more for everyone, even for those struggling now to pay their bills. I am against taxing Americans based on how many miles they drive.Washingtonians currently pay approximately $0.56 per gallon in taxes. Diesel is taxed at an even higher rate. Greedy politicians want more of our hard-earned money and are now developing a new tax-per-mile scheme to take it, especially from poor and middle-class families. All of this on top of tolling (taxing) us on the very "Freeways" you and I paid for. Enough already.
But how would the government implement their new tax-per-mile scheme? They would require us to purchase and install a tamper-proof tracker in our cars so bureaucrats can track our mileage (maybe even track where we drive) and then send us a bill. This new tax would need to be fairly high just to pay for the bureaucracy and enforcement. And, as with any new tax, it will no doubt increase rapidly as time goes by.
Let me spell out my position:
We should encourage the use of high mileage vehicles, not discourage it.
The government should not be allowed to track where or how far we drive and then tax us for doing so, on top of the high tax-per-gallon we're already paying.
Poor and middle-class Washingtonians can ill afford to be slapped with yet another new tax, just for going to work, buying groceries or taking our children to daycare.
Representative DelBene talks about environmental protection, and helping the working poor. But her real priority: Tax people out of their cars and send more of our hard-earned money to the bureaucrats in Washington DC. A vote for me is a vote against this new tax scheme.
My name is Robert J. Sutherland and I'm running for U.S. Congress in WA 1st Congressional District. My website is sutherlandusa.com.