Maybe there’s less psychological resistance to two smaller taxes than to one bigger tax. I don’t think it would make a difference to me, but then there are a lot of things most people don’t agree with me on.

Re: Ranting Kid – thanks; I’ll pass along your compliments. Go over and argue with her if you get a chance. It’ll help sharpen her brain.

I agree that it’s a Rube Goldberg scheme; sometimes I wonder if that’s the attraction — another system to sell, another system to manage. A question that also occurs to me is why (or if) Oregon voters would suddenly get all relaxed and docile about this tax vs. a gas tax. With a gas tax, at least your movements remain opaque to the government; with a VMT tax they don’t; the total amount you’re likely to be taxed, on average and in the long run, the same amount either way — some function of (a) what you’ll put up with and (b) what is needed to keep roads functional.

I suppose the key points for Gov. Kulongoski et al above are (a) that 75-99% of people don’t think “long run” and (b) they probably still don’t care very much about the possibility of government surveillance, either because they just don’t care, or because they buy the “look Ma, nothing in the on-board device” red herring.

PS: congrats on your “Ranting Kid“! As we both know, what the world needs is more opinionated bloggers; you and Moira have done your part. Seriously, though, it’s nice to see that there are kids who care about the world and issues around them… regardless of whether I agree with all of what they say. (So help me God.) Keep it up, RK.

Sometimes I grow alarmed at the state of affairs in my former place of residence.