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Committee approves resolution to bar government-imposed vehicle-miles fees and tracking; sponsor's amendment exempts government vehicles
Summary
House Ways and Means returned HCR 2035 as amended, a constitutional referral that would prohibit the state and local governments from imposing fees based on vehicle miles travelled (VMT) or from creating rules that monitor or limit miles driven by individuals. The committee adopted an amendment excluding government-owned vehicles from the ban.
The House Ways and Means Committee voted to return House Concurrent Resolution 2035, as amended, with a due-pass recommendation. The resolution would add a constitutional prohibition against state or local fees based on vehicle miles traveled by a person, and it would bar laws or rules that monitor or limit the number of miles a person may drive in a motor vehicle.
Sponsor Representative Wininger framed the resolution as a protection for individual mobility and privacy: "This only applies to government. We don't think government should be able to say and track how many miles we drive," the sponsor said in committee. The committee adopted an amendment by Representative Carter clarifying the prohibition does not apply to motor vehicles owned and operated by government entities.
Supporters told the committee the measure defends a longstanding right to travel and resists efforts in some jurisdictions to impose mileage-based fees, low-emission or congestion pricing schemes, or expanded vehicle tracking. "The right to travel precedes the creation of the U.S. Constitution," testified Amy Yientes of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, urging members to send the question to voters.
The committee adopted the Carter amendment and returned the resolution with a due-pass recommendation by a 5–4 vote. If adopted by the Legislature and placed on the ballot, the change would ask voters whether to enshrine the VMT prohibition in the state constitution.
