GP403: I'm sure you thought "FNG" when you read my name and had to check it out, which is fine by me. The web is full of fanciful stories... 2 Things that I will add though,
1.) This was an Alert from SEMA designed to be reposted across the forums to alert those in our hobby that care enough to try and protect it... SEMA releases Legislative Alerts on a fairly regular basis for all 50 States and Canada.
2.) I am both a Massachusetts Resident, & am a very involved activist for our hobby...
There is an assault on car/truck owners in Mass in recent years.. attempts to ban all aftermarket exhaust systems, oversized tires, non-stock engine swaps, roll cages in street cars...etc....
Yes, A Pilot Program it is, but what it is not, is something to waive off... especially for those who drive across state lines routinely, as most of us in the Northeastern US do. Piss-poor states with lots of Point A-B mileage, like California, would jump on this if it proves to be successful. We buy gas and pay a tax in each state we buy it in... currently it levels out... If you pay by the mile, you are getting overly charged and also for miles driven outside the state. It wouldn't matter how fuel efficient your car is, or how well you manage your leadfoot... Just like O-Blamocare... its all in how the tax is purposed and worded in its intent to make it fully legal in the eyes of the court.
In States that have vast tracts of undeveloped land and a relatively spread out population, tracking is likely not very feasible... however, up here in the Northeastern US, including us in Southern New England (Mass, CT, RI), we have a very high population density, with numerous major roadways crisscrossing the entire region at fairly close proximities to each other. It wouldn't be overly hard to set up a network of check stations along the major arteries. Those stations pick up the transponder beams within a several mile radius. Those check stations could easily get a reading every so often and if your mileage at inspection time does not correspond to the data the Mass RMV has in its transponder data recordings, you pay a penalty/fine. The Transponder system is already in place and is heavily used because the Mass Turnpike (aka US I-90) goes from Boston to the opposite end of Mass, and it the primary route for all trans-state traffic. Mileage between given points is well known, so its not like they couldn't figure out where you drove from/to.. all they need is some periodic readings to verify your odometer reading... It could also be tied to a GPS system as stated above.
The Devil is in the details... Mileage is already recorded every time you pull in for an inspection in this state... OBDII and OBDIII get plugged-in every time they are inspected, so they are pretty much already locked in with the OBD "Black Box". A simple flat-tax-penalty could be levied against pre-OBDII vehicles.
There are not large numbers of pre-OBDII vehicles left on the road up here because of the salty air and winter/road salt usage... Cash-4-Clunkers took out tons of pre-OBDII vehicles here and Massachusetts' mandatory "Must Pass Inspection within 7 Days of Purchase" has killed many or taken out quite a few worth a reasonable resurrection... another killer of older cars up here is that most town/city bylaws in Mass forbid unregistered vehicles from being on anyone's property for more than 30 days without a dealer or scrap license... so many end up going to the crusher.
There is also ongoing talk about expanding the Mass Toll System to several additional federal highways in Mass, US I-91, US I-93, and US I-95. The State is also in the early process of fully automating the entire tolls system by use of those transponders, which already have a tracking and mileage capability... that is how they charge you for the tolls.
Massachusetts is a VERY Liberal state and is amongst the top of the heap for regulations and taxation, and yet its perpetually Broke... I also work for this state, and can assure everyone that a "Pilot Program" is exactly what it is.. Hopeful as I am that it simply dies in committee, the purpose of this whole thread is to make people aware and to get it killed before it goes anywhere. otherwise, it will become a lead-into a developmental project that will eventually be scaled up to a larger, statewide network... just like Massachusetts being the first to mandate Health Insurance... people said it would never come to pass and now... Obama's less-developed version is Federal Law.
Mass also was the model for some of the toughest gun laws in the country. Its also the State that built THE Most Expensive road project in US History "The Big Dig" ...also known as the "The Boston Strainer" because of all the leaks in it... that 3.5 mile tunnel collectively cost Mass Residents and US taxpayers about $22 Billion dollars... which we are still paying for... We were also a pilot program for EZ Pass. Massachusetts has a long history of finding new ways to "Generate Revenue" for itself. On the automotive front alone, we pay a sales tax when buying any vehicle, a registration fee, a plate fee, and an initial vehicle excise tax. We then pay a yearly "Vehicle Excise Tax" on each vehicle we own, A registration renewal fee every 2 years, a yearly inspection fee (includes yearly safety and emissions bi-yearly on OBDII-up), Gasoline Excise Tax & Gasoline Sales Tax, Auto Insurance, Tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike aka US-90, and this past Summer, the governor raised the gasoline excise tax and tied it to the Rate of Inflation...
...and the state still cannot afford to fix the Roads and Bridges. The claim to justify this idea is that they will eliminate the Gasoline Excise tax in return, however the Mass Turnpike Tolls were initiated to offset the construction costs of the Mass Turnpike back in the 60's... the dept was paid off long ago, and yet the tolls remain some 30 years after the debt was paid.
