(The Center Square) – The Republican-led House passed a Democratic bill that would create a pilot program to determine how to tax drivers based on mileage driven in their vehicles on public highways in Texas.
HB 3418, filed by Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburgh, passed the House Friday by a vote of 96-46.
According to the bill analysis, “diesel and gas taxes are a major source of revenue for the construction and maintenance of Texas roads. There are many promising technologies on the horizon suggesting that the traveling public will see an increase in alternatively fueled vehicles on Texas roads.” The bill “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.”
The bill would amend the Transportation Code to require the Texas Department of Transportation, working with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, to develop and implement a statewide pilot program to assess a user fee on all motor vehicles based on the number of miles driven on public highways in Texas.
When asked how a residential or commercial vehicle would be taxed, at first Canales said, “we don’t know,” but later said there could be many methodologies, including putting a tracking device on vehicles.
When discussing the bill on the House floor, Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, asked, “How will you determine a residential vehicle or commercial vehicle how many miles they’ve traveled?”
“We don’t know. That’s why we want to figure out how to do it,” Canales replied.
“Would there be some kind of tracker on our car or on our vehicle?” Toth asked.
Canales replied 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.
“So it’s not limited to any kind of tracking device?” Toth asked. “No,” Canales replied and then asked, “Do you think this body would ever pass something that mandated that we track your car?”
Toth replied by saying he worries that the bill “is the camel’s nose under the tent.”
“I have a lot of faith in this chamber,” Canales interrupted. “And I’ll tell you this, I will be the first one to vote against anything that tracked my car.”
“But the problem is, as you know, you may be the first one to vote against it but this legislature can’t limit future legislatures from enacting law,” Toth replied. “My concern is that this bill that you’ve laid out to us is going to open the door for future legislatures to go much farther.”
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.”
The bill would create a task force of seven members to guide the development of the pilot program. They’d be appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor, House Speaker, and members of the Senate and House Committees on Transportation.
The Legislative Budget Board states it anticipates the bill poses “no significant fiscal implication to the state.”
The bill heads to the Senate, where it’s unlikely to be considered.
This article First appeared in the center square