(The Center Square) – The Texas Senate has scheduled a hearing to debate a bill few thought would be considered by the conservative body: a proposal to tax drivers by how many miles they drive.
The proposal, filed by a Democrat from south Texas, state Rep. Terry Canales, who Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, appointed to chair the House Transportation Committee, passed the House April 5 by a vote of 96-46.
According to the bill language, it “seeks to assess the feasibility of vehicle mileage user fees as an alternative to the motor fuels tax in Texas by requiring the Texas Department of Transportation to conduct a vehicle mileage user fee pilot program and establishing a task force to assist in developing the program.”
Senate Transportation Committee Chair, state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, scheduled the bill for a hearing on Wednesday over the objection of conservatives in the state. Conservatives are now calling senators to oppose a bill supported by the Biden administration and on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to not bring the bill to the floor if the committee advances it.
If the Senate passes the bill, conservatives argue, they are “opening the door to a new tax – an exorbitantly more expensive one than the gas tax that will DESTROY the middle class and price most drivers off the road.”
Grassroots America We the People, one of the largest, most influential conservative organizations in Texas, sent out an alert Monday urging Texans to call their state senators to oppose the bill.
It’s the “Biden Administration, [U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary] Pete Buttigieg and the radical environmental groups who support this bill,” the group argues. “Remember, they’re ‘testing’ time of day, which is a ‘congestion tax.’ They already do this through congestion tolling. In the metroplex, the congestion tax exceeds $3 per mile during peak hours,” the group says, citing a Fort-Worth Star Telegram news story.
The article explains how drivers on TEXPress toll lanes are charged roughly $15 to drive less than six miles.
The group also points out that Texas studied a mileage tax in 2010 and there is no need to do it again.
Lawmakers who oppose the bill also raise privacy concerns.
When discussing the bill on the House floor, Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, asked Canales, “Would there be some kind of tracker on our car or on our vehicle?”
Canales replied that the purpose of the study is to determine “the least intrusive way to preserve our rights of privacy. And they’ve got to come and report it.”
“Are you open to a tracker being on our vehicle?” Toth asked.
“The study is open to different methodologies of monitoring a vehicle,” he replied.
In a tweet he posted of the exchange, Toth said, “Neither Texas, nor any government entity should be able to track our vehicles. That which begins as a study today becomes tyranny tomorrow.”
This article First appeared in the center square