Man ticketed $2,000 for using biofuel

[thewayne]

$1,000 from the state of North Carolina, and probably a corresponding amount from the Feds. I've always thought that vehicle tax should be based on the number of miles you drive: have a safety inspection every year, mileage is recorded, a tax bill is sent out. This is definitely going to be a problem for biofuel users bcause those gasoline/diesel tax dollars are very important to the state coffers and highway maintenance funds.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/599471.html

Comments

[deborak]

** choke, sputter **

I didn't know you were a road nazi! It's none of the government's business how may miles I'm driving. Besides, miles cannot be correlated to particular road surfaces driven on for the purposes of upkeep -- unless, for example, you are advocating setting up a total surveillance system so that each city/county/state you drive into can send you a separate bill.

You are correct in pointing out that this man's ticket is all about the extraction of $ to feed the state, however.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Heh. No, I was just checking to see if you were awake. I am in favor of vehicle safety inspections, though. I hate seeing cars with missing or no brake lights and worse.

I'm not completely sold on the concept of privatizing all the roads, though. I think my main problem is the lack of a unified payment system. When we came back from VA last year and were skirting Denver on a toll road, we were stopping every three or four miles to pay another toll! Granted, if we lived in the area, we could have gotten an EZ Pass-type thingie, but it kinda sucks for occasional visitors.

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

Must have been E-470. The good part about that road is that they have, in fact, been retiring the tool booths as the cost of the original construction is paid off, so eventually that will be a free route. With any luck the switchover will happen in the middle of a housing slump so there isn't an immediate explosion of suburbia.