California Legislators Appear To Spend Every Waking Hour Finding New Ways To Tax Their Citizens

In the wake of a massive increase on the price of gasoline a few months back, one of the biggest tax burden states is preparing for their next scheme to fleece their populace.  And it appears that this will include invading their privacy as well through the tapping into their cell phones to monitor mileage use which will allow for a new mileage tax.

California already is number one in state income taxes, and number 10 in sales tax charges, but these do not include the vast number of other fees and charges that proliferate the lives of their citizens every year.

However their new idea of of a mileage tax may be pushing things to the extreme since it may require the state being allowed to track your cell phone without a warrant to be able to monitor and tax your travel.

Now, after 3 full years of studying various methodologies for tracking mileage, from requiring a “plug-in” for each vehicle to tracking your smart phone movements to more manual systems that would track odometers, the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), according to a newly filed report is officially ready to declare a mileage tax ‘feasible’.  Here’s what they found:

The Road Charge Pilot Program successfully tested the functionality, complexity, and feasibility of the critical elements of this new potential revenue system – road charge – for transportation funding.

Manual options provide the highest degree of privacy and data security, but will in all likelihood be the most difficult to enforce, and could be costly to administer

Plug-in devices are the most reliable options, however as new technology emerges this methodology could be obsolete by the time a road charge program is adopted

More technologically advanced methods, such as the smartphone application with location services and the in-vehicle telematics show great promise, but need further refinement – Zerohedge

In addition to taking in some of the highest tax revenues in the country, California is also one of the most irresponsible when it comes to being able to live within their budget as their deficits for 2017 alone came out to more than $1.6 billion.  And when you add in the hundreds of billions of dollars in underfunded pension plans that have led Calpers to cut payments to retirees in some cities, then the issue isn’t one of not enough revenue, but of fiscal irresponsibility.

Over the past 20 years California has seen a large migration of both individuals and businesses leaving the state for more equitable standards of living, and it is very likely that this new mileage tax scheme will drive even more to want to get out of the state.

Kenneth Schortgen Jr is a writer for The Daily Economist, Secretsofthefed.com, Roguemoney.net, and Viral Liberty, and hosts the popular youtube podcast on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Ken can also be heard Wednesday afternoons giving a weekly economic report on the Angel Clark radio show.