Rock Island Today

State Rep. Dan Swanson (R-Alpha) hopes history will repeat itself if state lawmakers again face a proposed mileage tax.

“I can say it was tried one other time by President (John) Cullerton (D-Chicago) in the senate in the 99th General Assembly,” Swanson recently told WRMU Radio. “He actually pulled it. It did not move forward; it died in the senate when he didn’t have any votes.”

Swanson said part of that proposal had three options for how state motorists would be billed.

“There was a smart plan, which would charge for every one and a half miles driven by your car in Illinois, another based upon a monthly odometer reading and the third was person could pay a $450 one-time fee per year,” he said.

Swanson said current talk of such legislation is as misguided as it was back then.

“I haven’t seen any bills going forward at this time, but I am on House Resolution 766 along with 38 members of the House that are opposed to any type of road tax or mileage tax in our privately owned vehicles,” he said.  

With Democrats now holding a super majority in Springfield and J.B. Pritzker soon to take over in the governor’s mansion, talk of a mileage tax has again picked up steam across the state.

Critics argue such legislation would exacerbate the state’s already out-of-control outmigration problem.

With Pritzker now in power, lawmakers such as Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) fear that other sweeping changes could be coming in the name of generating more revenue for the financially strapped state.

Cassidy is on record asserting she thinks the state may be on a path to legalizing marijuana, legislation outgoing Gov. Bruce Rauner fought long and hard to suppress.   

According to Cassidy, Pritzker seems driven by the notion that the additional revenue could be used to pay toward the various new programs he has come out in favor of implementing.