The federal government and several state-level agencies have spent years trying to impose a new tax that charges drivers per mile driven, but a new tax from California Republican Rep. The bill aims to stop that aspiration forever.
Issa introduced the No Track No Tax Act last week. This prohibits the federal government from directing funds to develop a system that tracks drivers and imposes a tax on each mile driven.
Issa’s bill is a response to plans by the San Diego County Local Transportation Authority to tax drivers by the number of miles driven to generate billions of dollars in revenue to expand public transportation in the city. Issa said plans of this kind were an overreaching attempt by the government to force people to move from cars to public transit, and made clear the goal of the San Diego agency to try to “change behaviour.” says he admits it.
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California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa introduced a new bill aimed at preventing the government from pursuing a “mileage” tax.
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull/Files)
But Issa also warns that the technology needed to implement a “vehicle mileage” tax (VMT tax) will empower government officials to track people’s movements.
“Mileage tax is only enabled by mileage trackers, which are devices that track drivers and follow them wherever they go,” Issa said. “This is a dangerous government intrusion with potentially endless potential for exploitation and personal data exposure.”
Issa told Fox News Digital, “The very concept of tracking and taxing every American’s movements by location and distance runs counter to both the fundamentals of the U.S. Constitution and the free flow of trade. “There are already enough chases in America, most of which require warrants.”
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The Department of Transportation, led by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, is considering ways to tax drivers by the distance they drive.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh/Files)
Issa said his bill would be enough to stop San Diego officials from pursuing plans to tax drivers by the mile, as they rely heavily on federal funding.
But Issa’s bill would also prevent the federal government from pursuing this idea, requiring federal funds to “research, propose, establish, implement, or enforce a state, local, or federal mileage tax.” It says it can’t be used.
More than a decade ago, the Obama administration’s Department of Transportation floated the idea of taxing cars by the mile to generate more infrastructure revenue. The plan envisioned each car being equipped with a tracker to record the distance traveled at gas stations, recording that data and sending it to the government for tax collection purposes.
That idea went nowhere, but the $1 trillion infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021 would require the Department of Transportation to start a pilot program aimed at investigating the idea of a VMT tax. It contained a request for
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Under plans being considered at the state and federal levels, drivers will be tracked and charged taxes based on the distance they drive.
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The infrastructure bill directed the department to create a Federal System Funding Alternatives Advisory Committee to explore the idea of a “user fee per mile” as a way to generate highway funding based on the distance people drive. I asked for The bill calls for the use of volunteers in all 50 states to begin testing this new system, which tracks in-vehicle devices, data from auto insurance companies, cell phone data, and how far people drive. I envisioned using other means.
Law says the Federal System Funding Alternatives Advisory Board must be operational by February 2022, but a department spokesperson said it had not yet been in place as of late last year. .
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Issa said it made sense to try to pass the bill now without expecting further delays at the Department of Transportation. “If it works, tax it,” he famously quoted about the government’s views on how to do so.
“This is definitely something that’s moving,” Issa said of the idea of taxing cars.
