Lots of States are considering taxing mileage instead of at the pump. So, say that priests get an exemption for mileage used for being chaplains to law enforcement agencies, for trips to nursing homes, rehabs, hospitals, visits to homes for Communion Calls and Confessions/Last Rites, for Funerals. What will be demanded for reimbursements is addresses, routes, names, religious purposes, times and dates.
Well, hell. Hell no. I won’t comply.
Which just means I’ll be paying a lot more than most road-users. City priests have no idea. They might put on no mileage in a week. I can easily put on 500 miles in typical week, even twice that. Depends.
The diocese provides that we can be paid the going government rate for business mileage, but also demands tons of information about all the trips that are claimed, you know, in case we’re all audited by the government regarding mileage. All that information ain’t gonna happen.
So I personally pay for it all, which can run up to $7,000.00 yearly that would otherwise be claimed. I don’t claim anything, because that would bankrupt the parish, the tiniest in North America. The CFO simply said, “Oh, I had no idea.” That would be right. If you don’t live the circumstances, you know nothing. If you’re not a priest, you may have zero concern for the right to privacy of individuals who don’t want the government or the diocese for that matter knowing if and when they are going to Confession, getting the Last Rites, why it cannot be done in the church in that instance, etc. Do I really have to explain with each trip that the person is in traction in home hospice, etc.?
In the city, priests live right next to hospitals, even walk to the hospitals. No one can imagine the huge distances travelled in the mountains. I remember some Communion Calls being +/- 100 miles distant one from the other, just one way.
- “Damn you, Father Byers! You’re embarrassing us! Just give us names and addresses of those whose Confessions you are hearing, whose Last Rites you are providing! Tell us why you are there! Prove it’s a religious purpose! We’re the government and we’re here to help you judge what is religious or not! TELL. US. EVERYTHING.”
- No. That specific judgment would be against the First Amendment and would be against the non-establishment clause. I won’t comply.
An unnecessary rant?
There have been rather higher government officials in the area who do not consider the Catholic Church to be a mainstream Church, or any kind of church at all. They do not have anything like Confession, Communion Calls, Last Rites. Nothing. They think that none of that is religious at all. Do you think State administrations auditing Catholic priests for mileage are going to be better? Zero chance of that in North Carolina at the moment.
So, I’ll just pay more, not claiming any mileage, just like I’ve not claimed any mileage for very many years.
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 
Pope Leo XIII was a witness to the beginning of this demonic time. It put the poor man into a catatonic state!
Who would ever have thought…..?
And it’s bound to get worse, I fear.
This taxation by mileage is intended to counter-balance the loss of revenue due to electric vehicles which pay no fuel taxes. The onerous paper-work and privacy intrusions are likely “poison pills” introduced into legislation* by proponents of electric cars in order to kill off perceived attempts to suppress electric cars, attempts which I believe are really meant to recapture a significant loss of tax revenue, needed to maintain roads, that may/will result if/when electric cars replace the combustion engine.
How strange would it be to see Democrats publicly argue against taxation? Who wants to wager that taxes will then become part of the institution of white supremacy? You know, racism! The EV tax is the new poll tax. yeesh…
* “they” never miss an opportunity to grab power to surveil the populace, do “they?”