Electric vehicles would have to pay a mandatory road usage charge under a proposal in the Oregon Legislature. (123RF)

The Oregon plug-in penalty

Thinking of doing the environment a favor and going part or full electric while driving on Oregon roads? Let me introduce you to your new best friend RUC, short for road usage charge. No, not a new type of charging station, but a new tax that awaits legislative approval in HB 2025. According to the experts (not me), the per mile RUC will apply to EVs and plug-in hybrids. And get this, the per-mile RUC seeks to tax you as if you are driving a gas guzzler getting 20 miles per gallon. See, the state of Oregon thinks you are a gas tax cheat if you are not driving a gas guzzler. And there is more. In order to do the calculation of the new tax, you need to hand over your vehicle’s stored driving information and who knows what other data to third party vendors contracted by ODOT.

The cost of this program will most certainly exceed its revenue generation, but hey that’s not a problem for ODOT because the overall income stream created by HB 2025 is huge. If you want to skip all of this and just pay up, the proposed $340 annual tax on these vehicles is based on driving you 18,000 miles a year at 20 mpg at the new gas tax rate. Check with your state legislators, see what they are thinking.

– Mark Gentle, Bend

The dealmaking of Trump

More than 30 years ago, Donald Trump co-authored the book, “The Art of the Deal.” President Trump does deal-making to set fiscal policies, foreign relations, and expand his real estate empire. For offshoring immigrants, he relies on border czar Tom Homan. Department secretaries fire DEI managers.

The White House’s executive orders have haphazardly fired and scattered government employees and their families. Trump’s Department of Justice faces more than 100 lawsuits challenging his orders.

All this doesn’t trouble Trump. Deal-making results in winners and losers. President Trump always wins. His press secretary daily reports, in my words, “He has the most wins of any President in U.S. history.”

On June 14, the U.S. Army celebrated its 250th birthday.  Trump also celebrated his birthday with a parade in Washington D.C.  Trump, commander in chief, raised his fist for the soldiers, marching bands, tanks, howitzers and missile launchers as they passed.  Cryptocurrency billionaires likely cheered online.

In the Wall Street Journal Dec. 13, contributing columnist, Josh Zoffer, wrote about Trump:  “He has turned life into something that feels more fictional than fiction itself, the snaking branch of a multiverse that must have broken off from the master timeline.”

“The real excitement is playing the game,” Trump says in his deal making book’s section. “I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what I should have done differently, or what’s going to happen next,” he continues.

– Tim Conlon, Bend

 

There is no king

Let’s recap. Protestors bravely stood up against a monarchy that doesn’t exist in this country, and hasn’t since 1776. This is collective psychosis.

– Keith Gallagher, Morrow County