OReGO Has No Wings

Willamette Week and Fox News don't agree on much. The Oregon Department of Transportation has managed to create something that the liberal newspaper and the conservative news channel agree upon. They both hate the new vehicle mileage tax that started in Oregon on July 1st.

The program is called OReGO and it is open to 5000 volunteers. The participating vehicles are fitted with a GPS unit that plugs into the car's diagnostic port. Drivers are charged 1.5 cents per mile on Oregon roads and they are refunded any gas tax they pay at the pump. 

So what is it that has both the left wing and the right wing upset with this program? 

Let's start with the left: OReGO taxes all vehicles at 1.5 cents per mile. This means that Hummers pay the same per mile as a Prius. With gas tax, there was an incentive to drive a fuel efficient vehicle. This flat rate removes the state tax incentive to have a smaller carbon footprint. 

Moving to the right: OReGO puts a GPS tracker in your car. Everywhere you go can tracked. The program is designed to have this information scrubbed by a 3rd party before it is seen by the state, but the invasion of privacy is big government stepping far over the line into our personal lives.  

There are more complaints on both sides, but these are the biggest two. This leaves the program vastly without support from the left wing or the right wing.

Without support from either political wing, OReGO
is like a plane with no wings. it's not going to fly