There’s an easier solution. A vehicle weight tax that actual laborers are exempted from. Weight is what damages the roads, so a weight tax would accomplish practical and ideological goals.
Why should actual laborers be exempt from them? Do you mean to say that if they drive a company truck, then they wouldn’t have to pay weight taxes? (I would think it wise to have the company pay taxes for miles driven and weight of the vehicle driven during those miles)
Yeah just because you’re an electrician for your day job doesn’t mean you need to own a pickup to drive to the company office where you’ll drive a company truck to job sites.
Sure, if you’re a contractor using your own truck then you should be reimbursed by the company hiring you, which should offset the tax. If you’re a farmer, same thing, unless you own the farm, in which case your truck should be licensed as a commercial vehicle
I’m on a site with about 500 electricians right now. The vast majority of them don’t drive company trucks. It’s really just foremen, the general foreman, superintendent and various project managers and higher-ups.
The damage done by heavy vehicles is disproportionate to their weight and fuel use. The current system is clearly broken but we shrug when tens of thousands of people die every year, carbon emissions continue to rise, and our roads are disintegrating.
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There’s an easier solution. A vehicle weight tax that actual laborers are exempted from. Weight is what damages the roads, so a weight tax would accomplish practical and ideological goals.
Why should actual laborers be exempt from them? Do you mean to say that if they drive a company truck, then they wouldn’t have to pay weight taxes? (I would think it wise to have the company pay taxes for miles driven and weight of the vehicle driven during those miles)
Yeah just because you’re an electrician for your day job doesn’t mean you need to own a pickup to drive to the company office where you’ll drive a company truck to job sites.
I was more thinking contractors or farmers who use their own truck for work. Not people using company trucks
Sure, if you’re a contractor using your own truck then you should be reimbursed by the company hiring you, which should offset the tax. If you’re a farmer, same thing, unless you own the farm, in which case your truck should be licensed as a commercial vehicle
I’m just trying to get the idea passed people and those two groups are always the ones sea lioned about.
I’m on a site with about 500 electricians right now. The vast majority of them don’t drive company trucks. It’s really just foremen, the general foreman, superintendent and various project managers and higher-ups.
I’m not trying to e.g. add an extra tax on your plumber driving a van. Company trucks and semis already have extra taxes in most states.
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This sounds like the CAFE debacle all over again…
These large vehicles use more gas, and thus people with these large vehicles pay more in taxes. People already pay a vehicle weight tax.
Both then. You can’t tax just gas because EV semis/trucks put plenty of wear on the road.
Also the gas tax fluctuates based on prices but road wear does not.
EVs are currently taxed every time they fill-up. Every watt you pull has a tax on it.
Everything (?) is taxed multiple times at some point. How does that matter in this context?
The damage done by heavy vehicles is disproportionate to their weight and fuel use. The current system is clearly broken but we shrug when tens of thousands of people die every year, carbon emissions continue to rise, and our roads are disintegrating.