Illinois Democrats hope to impose a "road usage charge" on Prairie State residents. If successful, the proposal would see drivers pay more the more miles they log. But tracking the miles requires universal vehicle surveillance - an affront to the fundamental liberties of privacy and free travel, and a non-starter for most non-statists. Will the new road tax regulation reach its intended destination, or will the roadblocks prove insurmountable?
Illinois Road Tax Initiative
Introduced by Illinois Democrat state Rep. Ram Villivalam, the proposed pilot program would “assess the potential for mileage-based revenue as an alternative to the current system of taxing highway use through motor fuel taxes.” The plan is driven by concerns that drivers of electric vehicles do not pay a fuel tax, which has hurt revenues and is particularly inequitable. EV owners already receive regressive incentives to buy their fancy rigs; avoiding road levies punishes poor citizens a second time by making them shoulder the lion’s share of highway maintenance costs.
Illinois already saddles its drivers with heavy baggage. The Daily Caller reports the Prairie State pays the second-highest gas taxes nationally (after California) at 67.1 cents per gallon and the 7th-highest average tolls at an equivalent of 65 cents per mile on non-interstate toll roads. Presumably, the novel vehicle miles-traveled tax (VMT) would be applied to both gas-powered transport and EVs to displace fuel levies, but additional costs would include tracking technology. Americans for Tax Reform explains that federal pilot program legislation proposes “third-party onboard diagnostic devices (GPS tracking devices), smart phone apps, data from automakers and data obtained by car insurance companies.”
A Toll by Any Other Name
The nation appears poised on a dystopic precipice when driving to work is labeled “surface transportation.” Bureaucratic disconnect is on Brave New Display when the government cajoles people to grant surveillance powers linked to a regressive tax that was promised would never be enacted, which citizens are told is not a toll. The Highway Administration states: “Any revenue collected through a user-based alternative revenue mechanism established using funds provided under this program shall not be considered a toll….” A tax by any other name …
New York City’s congestion pricing tolls are opposed by the current DOT, prompting a lawsuit by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Perhaps DOGE and the Trump administration will terminate the ongoing Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding of state programs designed to knit this “road usage charge” surveillance infrastructure together as part of Biden’s Marxist “equity” initiatives.
Illinois taxpayers already smothered with high road taxes will be a testing ground as Ram Villivalam’s progressive “equitable” pilot project is presented to the Illinois legislature in tandem with proposals to eliminate longstanding protective name change practices using the stealth-jargon of equity. Over time, the barrage of smooth-tongued efforts to grow government powers and coffers at taxpayer expense inflicts a heavy toll on public trust.
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