Austrian economics: From his bio at the Mercatus Center where he writes.
Robert is a native of Northern Virginia and a lifelong believer in freedom, free markets, and the rule of law. He holds degrees in mathematics from Harvard University and the University of Cambridge and a JD from NYU School of Law. During law school, he co-founded a libertarian and classical liberal law journal, the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty, dedicating the first issue to Friedrich Hayek, and he has been outspoken in arguing against government regulation of the tech industry. Robert has worked as a software developer, a lawyer, and a tech entrepreneur, and his research interests span a wide range of topics relating to law, economics, and public policy.
You can also read one of the papers he contributed to that outlines how stimulus spending is a great feel-good measure for politicians, but in reality only produces mixed results.
http://mercatus.org/publication/us-expe ... l-stimulus
Or an interview he did when running for state senate, once again praising Hayek.
His libertarian philosophy is reflected in his answer when asked about his favorite economist. Without pausing, he named Friedrich von Hayek, the Austrian Nobel laureate who taught at the London School of Economics and the University of Chicago.
“Hayek is someone who really influenced my thinking,” Sarvis explained: “How to think about problems that face national economies and how public policy can influence it in many unintended ways,”
http://www.examiner.com/article/virgini ... ams-saslaw
And did you know Milton Friedman, who is held in high regard by Austrian economists, was not an Austrian economist?
Transportation: I certainly agree that Sarvis mentioned the mileage tax but only as one idea among many – he did not call for it. He did not say you need a GPS for this program to work. In fact, we already have equipment to track miles driven - an odometer. But since we're talking about transportation, here's so more information on his position:
Infrastructure should be paid for by those who use it. We should be moving toward user-pays funding, but the recent Transportation Bill moved us AWAY from it, by shifting funding to the sales tax and other taxes unrelated to transportation.
Regressive tax increases should not be a part of our transportation policy. The Transportation Bill's sales-tax hike was a regressive change that burdens the poor, some of whom don't even own a car.
Increased funding from usage fees should result in lower taxes. A major reason people dislike congestion pricing and tolls is that the fees are often paid in addition to the tax burden, rather than replacing it. Politicians should not adopt tolls as a sneaky additional source of revenue.
Medicaid: Sarvis did not call for the Medicaid expansion but rather reforms and decentralization of the health care system. Sarvis believes that programs like Medicaid should be at the state level, not the federal level. Let Virginians take care of Virginians. It is a distortion of his views.
Taxes: I don't know how this can be construed as he wants to raise taxes. Taken from the man's own website.
Eliminating the Car Tax, which is unpopular;
Eliminating the BPOL, Machine & Tools, Merchant Capital and other business taxes that hide the cost of taxation, burden employers, and reduce business activity;
Eliminating, or dramatically reducing, the income tax, which reduces employment and lowers take-home pay;
Moving to a uniform consumption tax on all final retail sales of goods and services.
Reforming property taxes by excluding, or lowering the rate applied to, improvements to land;
Prefering, where possible, user fees to general taxes.
As for why I didn't vote for KC, it's the same reason a lot of people didn't vote for him. He's too socially conservative for my taste.