Illinois Considering a Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax

"A new proposal to pay for fixing Illinois' roads could use devices to track how far Illinois drivers have traveled and tax them by the mile," reports Mike Riopell. Riopell explains how the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax, as such a scheme is called, would work. The current proposal would allow drivers two options for taxing their VMT, with provisions made for privacy concerns.

Also important is the why of the proposal. According to Riopell, the "plan from Senate President John Cullerton…is aimed at gasoline tax revenues that have fallen as drivers have bought more fuel-efficient cars.

In a separate article, John Greenfield reports on the political context for the proposal, which follows a report released by the Metropolitan Planning Council earlier this month about the state's $43 billion needs in transportation infrastructure spending. Greenfield also reports that the path to approval for the current bill is potentially too ambitious for a short timeline. Ryan Griffith-Stegink, spokesperson for the Metropilitan Planning Council is cited in the article predicting that the VMT tax will take three to five years to implement, if at all.

Yet another article by Natalie Martinez includes a television report on the news of the proposal.