What is or could be on the horizon:

NEW POLL: Mass. governor Baker recently opposed a Fed-sponsored vehicle-miles traveled tax pilot program. Bad choice? Would this not be a sound alternative to a gas tax boost for generating state revenue?
Drop by our homepage and take this week's poll question, which considers miles-traveled taxation as a potential boon to state revenue.

This would be a tax on the miles you actually drive, question is, how will they (government) enforce this? How will they track your mileage without tracking you? I guess they did not think about the consequences of all the electric cars, hybrids and increased mileage requirements which results in less gas used which means less gas tax collected which equals less money for roads. Here is an idea, stop paying Iran 400 million dollars and no over one billion in interest to Iran. Actually stop sending tax dollars over seas and start spending them here, at home. I would not look for that to happen so we can expect for this mileage tax to not go away and rather expect them to keep it on the table and eventually get to us.

The Massachusetts state legislature wanted the governor to apply of a federal "grant" (your tax dollars) to do a pilot program here in the commonwealth, work out the kinks, figure out the way to track you and see how much money can be taken in, then tell you this is the new thing, pay to drive, in addition to what it already costs you. This looks like it makes all of Massachusetts one large toll plaza. What do out of state drivers pay under this system? This item needs to stay on the radar.

posted by Jeff Bennett