Democrats want to be able to control how much people drive.
Michigan just figured out a way to do that.
And what the state buried in a little noticed budget provision opened the door to mass surveillance of drivers.
Michigan Democrats Buried the Mileage Tax Vote Nobody Got to Take
Michigan voters never got a referendum, a ballot measure, or a press conference.
Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer tucked the $7.65 million appropriation inside the fiscal year 2025-26 state budget – Public Act 22 of 2025 – and signed it into law on October 7, 2025.
The pilot launches in February 2027, six months after Whitmer leaves office, which means she gets credit for starting it without having to answer for where it ends.
The state's own advisory committee appointee spelled out exactly how the tracking works: GPS "can get you within two meters reliably today," said John Peracchio, a State Transportation Commission member helping design the pilot.
The other option, Peracchio explained, is to "leverage a smart device like an iPhone" and "marry that data up with information about your vehicle" – meaning your phone and your car both become data feeds to the state.
The Michigan Department of Transportation surveyed 19,160 residents and found nearly a third had serious data privacy concerns, with 17% saying they would refuse to hand over their mileage information at all.
The state collected those responses and built the program anyway.
What the Pay Per Mile Tax Costs and Where the Money Goes
A typical Michigan driver putting 15,000 miles a year on a car would owe something under a flat mileage rate – but the state hasn't decided what that rate is yet.
Peracchio told WDIV the state is "nowhere near figuring that out."
What Michigan does know: the $7.65 million pilot covers just 1,000 volunteer drivers for six months, which works out to more than $6,000 per participant before a single mile gets taxed.
The Michigan Freedom Fund warned when Democrats first proposed the pilot in 2024 that there is "no way to implement a miles traveled tax on Michigan drivers without a significant growth of government intrusion into our privacy."
They were right. And Democrats did it anyway.
The program's justification is straightforward: electric vehicles drained roughly $50 million in expected gas tax revenue from Michigan roads between 2019 and 2021, with that annual gap projected to reach $95 million by 2030.
So the solution to an EV revenue shortfall is to track every driver – including the 98.8% of Michigan drivers who don't own an electric vehicle.
California Democrats Are Pushing a Statewide Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax Without a Public Vote
California Assemblyman Carl DeMaio is sounding the alarm on what Sacramento Democrats are planning: a mileage tax of six to nine cents per mile, on top of the highest gas tax and car tax in the nation.
For a California driver covering 15,000 miles a year, that's $900 to $1,350 in new taxes every year – or the equivalent of slamming the gas tax with an 87-cent to $1.15 per gallon hike.
For a two-car family, combined gas taxes, car taxes, and the coming mileage tax could exceed $4,200 annually.
California Democrats killed DeMaio's bill that would have given voters the chance to approve or reject any mileage tax before it took effect.
Then they killed his constitutional amendment that would have required voter approval.
Democrats in Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, and Oregon are running the same playbook – study the program, fund the pilot, build the infrastructure, and implement it before voters understand what happened.
Oregon has run a road usage charge program since 2015, spending a decade refining exactly this model.
DeMaio told voters the only way to stop it is to break the Democrat supermajority in California's November midterm elections.
"All they need is two-thirds of the state legislature to impose a Mileage Tax," DeMaio warned. "Democrats aren't going to give us a chance to vote on this at the ballot box, because they know voters would vote it down."
Tracking your vehicle for a mileage tax is just the beginning.
Massachusetts is already exploring laws that would reduce how much Americans drive personal vehicles altogether.
Once the infrastructure exists to monitor every mile, it takes one act of a Democrat legislature to flip the switch from taxing your miles to capping them – and petty tyrants like Gavin Newsom have been waiting for exactly that moment, all in the name of climate change.
Sources:
- Simon August, "Michigan Tests Pay-Per-Mile System As EVs Cut Into Gas Tax Revenue," Daily Caller, September 9, 2026.
- "Is Michigan Paving the Way for Another Mass Surveillance Tool?" Daily Caller, September 10, 2026.
- "Worse Than Flock Cameras: Michigan Wants to Track How Far You Drive," Michigan News Source, September 10, 2026.
- Amy Curtis, "California Democrats Are Poised to Make Driving Even More Expensive," Townhall, September 3, 2026.
- "California's Midterm Election Will Determine Fate of Costly New Mileage Tax," Reform California.
- "5 Big Questions About Democrat-Run States' Plans to Track Car Mileage," Washington Times, January 12, 2026.
