Over the course of the previous election cycle, affordability has been among the greatest factors among voters, so why is California leading the nation in a brand new mileage tax that would force residents to pay per mile that they drive? States including Oregon, Utah, Washington, Hawaii, and Minnesota have started the process of implementing it. This tax is an invasion of privacy and disproportionately affects those in the suburban and rural regions of the U.S. because of the extra miles that commuters must travel to work and the additional miles incurred by farmers in spread-out rural communities.
Currently, there is no measure to officially implement this tax; however, California has concluded a pilot program, testing the taxes on the road. The ballot (AB 1421) is on furthering research into the tax and how to best implement it, which means the California government will soon be trying to actually implement this tax. Which, as a side note, seems extremely silly, they have already concluded the pilot program, and are about to spend somewhere in the hundreds of thousands to the low millions (according to KCRA 3 Sacramento) on further research on how to best tax you, the pilot program should have done all this.
States such as Utah and Oregon have already implemented a tax; if California goes the route of Utah, we may see people being taxed for miles they drive outside the state on roads the state does not pay for, and for driving on private roads that, again, the state does not pay for. Even though a bill is not on the assembly floor, this is not a possibility for the distant future; it is a looming fiscal hurricane directly on the horizon.
So why is the state doing this? It is not because they “care so deeply about the environment,” it is simply because the state, after they themselves acted to greatly regulate gasoline-powered conveyances and offer extensive subsidies for electric cars, began to lose revenue from the gas tax (California’s being the highest in the nation, exceeding $0.70 per gallon). These taxes are an important part of having a functional government; however, let us consider California’s track record. California ranks in the top three states with the worst roads, meaning mileage tax or not, our state sucks at maintaining roads, and the taxpayer is expected to reward that with greater control and a new form of taxation. Let us also not forget the disastrous high-speed rail, which has had $16,000,000,000 recklessly poured into it, with a projected $128,000,000,000 full price tag. As of 2026, 70 miles of infrastructure have been completed (that is $200,000,000 per mile), and 0 miles of track have been laid. This is certainly not how I want my money spent.
One of the biggest issues with this tax is that suburban and rural commuters must bear the costs, while urban residents with no vehicle have more opportunities for public transportation. If residents in Claremont work in the LA area, there is no bus that will get you there, unless the office is very close to a station, the train does not fulfill the need either, and therefore, driving is the only option. It also does not help that this tax will likely go more towards the urban areas anyway. California’s urban roads are ranked 47th in the nation, while the rural roads are only 41st (according to the Reason Foundation), meaning that the taxes will likely go towards maintaining roads in the city.
The greatest issue with this new tax is that it tracks how much you travel and, depending on the method of implementation, it may serve to track where you travel. That is an infringement on the individual privacy and right to travel freely of the citizens of the State of California. Citizens should be allowed to travel without being watched. Citizens in the United States are fighting against facial recognition software, which also serves to chip away at our privacy, and so too must we fight the software to be placed in our vehicles, which bill and track us.
Think about whether or not you would like the government to know your location at all times. Regardless of your political leaning, nobody fully trusts the government, especially not to completely protect your personal information. The government has a hard time keeping Social Security numbers secure. How are they going to secure your location when you are being tracked at all times? I would prefer that the state respect my right to privacy guaranteed and protected under the constitution.
The taxpayers of California are expected to reward the inefficiency and wastefulness of our state government with an infringement on our freedom to travel, and I, for one, am fed up with this expectation, so it goes.
