“Let’s figure out what we can do to make our roadways more efficient and not punish people into submission,” Supervisor Jim Desmond said.
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond has been vocal about his opposition to the
mileage tax proposed by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG).
The ‘road usage charge’ tax, known more widely as the mileage tax, proposes a four-cent-per-mile tax and is coupled with a two and a half cents regional sales tax as part of a $163 billion package to include funding for free public transit and a 200-mile regional rail network.
On Jan 26, the San Diego Supervisor tweeted out to Elon Musk asking for help with a “realistic transportation plan” to which Musk responded, “Sure.”
By ten o’clock the next morning, Desmond was meeting with members of the Boring Company, one of Elon Musk’s establishments. “I gotta tell ya, this guy acts fast,” Desmond said in a video clip on Twitter describing his meeting with the head of production at the Boring Company. ”Let’s embrace technology instead of just trying to scare people all the time.”
“Here’s a guy that’s the biggest innovator of our time in transportation. Let’s talk…. Let’s learn something and instead of punishing people, let’s make things better and more efficient instead of trying to tax people into submission, and that unfortunately is a SANDAG plan, tax people to change their behavior. Even says that in their own prospectus for this new plan.”
As commuters switch from gas powered vehicles to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), revenues on which the city depends on for transportation needs and maintenance, decline.
Desmond would like to see a more comprehensive transportation plan besides the taxing of commuters. The tax, he believes, forces residents onto public transport and out of their cars.
“Technology is going to change ten times over in the next thirty years. Let’s embrace it. Let’s figure out what we can do to make our roadways more efficient and not punish people into submission. Let’s embrace the future instead of the past,” Demond stated in an appearance on the Good Morning San Diego program.
SANDAG is scheduled to meet again on Feb. 17 to discuss the mileage tax.
