I have come to a conclusion.
Brian Sandoval, the great white Hispanic hope of mainstream Nevada Republicans would be much more comfortable as a Democrat.
I’ve never met the guy, don’t know him.
But his latest foray into “creative” funding of the highway trust fund is so un-American and, for lack of a better descriptor, liberal, that I cannot believe he can call himself a conservative Republican with a straight face.
Sandoval, upset because the car market has reacted to the rising cost of fuel and uses less of it, thinks that those people who buy less fuel are not paying enough for the highway.
So he wants to “study” changing the fuel tax to a mileage tax.
How do you collect a mileage tax?
Simple. You put a “black box” on every vehicle which reports back to the DMV the number of miles that vehicle goes and charge per mile. That technology is now cheap and available.
Now that’s exactly what I want.
I want the state of Nevada to know how many miles I drive and where I drive them. (You don’t think they’ll stop with the number of miles, do you?) As long as they have that chipset in your car, they might as well just record the conversations that take place in the car. Never happen, you say? Right. And the Federal Government would never keep track of every phone call made in the nation for the past five years. Can you imagine what that database would be worth to various companies and government agencies after a few years?
It’s bad enough that we do stupid things like this in the name of national security but collecting TAXES? In NEVADA?
There is an insurer which has a TV bimbo named Flo that has a program similar to that, but it’s voluntary.
Unfortunately a state run program would be just like Obamacare.
I wouldn’t make a blithe assumption that such a program is either unconstitutional or impossible to pass.
Remember that it is axiomatic government will always expand to consume all the available money and then ask for more.
Based on recent Supreme Court decisions, I would suggest that the Court has no intention of continuing to try and right wrongs done to the nation by their elected representatives.
If one thing shows through both the Obamacare decisions and the gay marriage decisions it is that the Court is not going to do the job of the legislative and executive branches either at the state or Federal level.
If you want to remove a threat such as this, the only answer is to make both the state’s Executive and Legislative branches impregnable to the big government crowd.
Remember, this Supreme Court allowed a California court ruling by a clearly biased judge to stand because the elected Governor wouldn’t challenge it.
Unless you want Flo and the Progressive Insurance Company leading the way in YOUR car or truck, it’s time for a very cranky electorate to send a very loud message.
Maybe the GOP could start by finding an actual Republican to run for Governor of Nevada next year. Or, maybe the Libertarians will.
FRED WEINBERG