Mileage-Based Revenue System

Recently I have noticed more and more talk of a mileage-based revenue system in addition to the fuel taxes we already pay at the pump. In a story on Fox News, The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing thinks the long-term solution to raising revenue for road construction and repair is a mileage-based revenue system. They are also urging a 50% gas tax hike in the mean time to gain lost revenue as Americans are driving less and using less fuel. I don't know which story is bigger. The fact that they want to raise taxes or the fact that they want to equip every car and truck with a device that uses global positioning satellites and transponders to record how many miles the vehicle has been driven, the type of roads and time of day. The latter is really scary to me. The government knowing where I am at all times. How Big Brother is that? It's not that I am doing anything wrong, it is just the fact that it is none of their business. In a related story, Pink Elephant Pundit writes " Think about how many people hated the Patriot Act - people do not want to give the government access to their personal information. " Tabitha's post was in response to NC seriously looking at mileage-based revenue. NC is not the only State to look at this method. Oregon and Minnesota have also considered this. Now the federal government is jumping on the bandwagon. Where will it stop? We are already taxed beyond belief, and with the new administration coming in 19 days, what are we in for?

In a side note, Adrian Moore, vice president of the Reason Foundation did say ,"commission members were initially concerned that using technology to track driving might violate drivers' privacy, but they've been assured that such a system could be designed to prevent vehicles from being "tracked in some big brotherish way."I wonder who is doing the assuring here? Care to take a guess?