VMT – California Globe

Sign Up for the State’s VMT Pilot Program – Please!

June 24, 2024 9:00 amJune 24, 2024 9:01 am

Sometimes, you have to take one for the team. In this case, it involves signing up for the California Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) tax pilot program. Why should you join such an effort, why go through the form-filled rigmarole and...

California’s Latest Tax Idea: Charge Drivers by the Mile

June 12, 2024 12:30 pmJune 12, 2024 12:30 pm

California has the highest income tax rate in the country (top tier of 14.4 percent), the highest statewide sales tax rate (7.25 percent, plus local sales taxes), and the highest gas tax rate ($0.78 per gallon). Yet it ranks third...

CalTrans Launches Road Tax Pilot Program

May 24, 2024 9:30 amMay 24, 2024 9:31 am

You’ll never drive alone again. If you were worried that Sacramento would turn off or even slow down its perpetual stupid machine, fear not: the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax pilot program has been launched! CalTrans is right now looking...

SANDAG Toll Road Foul Up: Thousands of Charging Mistakes Made

April 16, 2024 6:59 amApril 16, 2024 6:59 am

This is no way to run a toll road. Last fall, it was alleged that the San Diego Association of Government operations of the State Route 125 toll road system was riddled with errors, leading to wrong charges, diverted driver...

Planners Plan: It’s What They Do, Even When They Shouldn’t

February 13, 2024 12:24 pmFebruary 13, 2024 12:24 pm

It’s in the job title: Planner. Most government planners – pretty much the transport and housing sectors are what we are discussing today – became planners to meet their personal need to impose order on chaos, to improve society, and,...

Tax $900 Million, Cut Congestion 4%

September 6, 2023 6:00 pmSeptember 6, 2023 10:30 pm

With the inexorable and inescapable plod only a government agency can achieve, LA METRO’s plan to tax people as they drive has passed another milestone: the Traffic Reduction Study initiated in 2019 to study, well, traffic reduction has completed its...

Hasan Ikhrata Out at SANDAG

July 30, 2023 7:30 amJuly 30, 2023 7:33 am

After nearly five years with the agency, Hasan Ikhrata will be leaving his CEO spot at the San Diego Association of Governments. Ikhrata, a longtime fixture of southern California transportation and planning sub-culture, announced he is resigning effective December 29...