Daily Herald editorial

If you believe the government when it says it will keep your personal information private, then you will certainly like the state Department of Transportation’s newest idea for keeping tax revenue flowing. Those who are a bit less trusting may find the idea of MnDOT tracking their mileage unacceptable — as they should.

Like many bad ideas, this one makes sense on one level: If electric or hybrid cars really take hold, they will burn less gasoline, and it is a tax on gasoline that pays for much of Minnesota’s road construction and maintenance. Although they burn less gas, electric cars would still cause just as much wear and tear on roads, but without generating tax revenue to keep those roads in good shape. So MnDOT plans to test a system whereby drivers would pay per mile, rather than per gallon.

Unfortunately, that system would mean that the state has to be able to track every vehicle’s whereabouts.

But what will happen when the government decides it has good reason to use the system to monitor someone’s whereabouts? What will happen when some state employee’s laptop, containing millions of driving records, gets stolen — just as laptops with Social Security and other private information have been stolen before?

It’s all well and good to say those things can’t happen — but the reality is that they almost certainly will, because every system has flaws.

There’s a legitimate need to assess drivers their fair share of road maintenance costs, something the gasoline tax does very well. Surely there must be a system for the future that doesn’t amount to the government watching every driver’s every move.