What’s on your ballot? Prop 141 would ban vehicle miles traveled taxes in Arizona

This November, Proposition 141 will give Arizona voters a chance to put the brakes on vehicle miles traveled taxes, or VMTs.

Prop 141 is a legislative referendum that would amend the Arizona Constitution to prevent state and local governments from ever implementing taxes based on the number of miles a person drives. It would also forbid any law that would cap the number of miles a person can travel in their vehicle.

The Legislature referred the measure to the ballot in a bipartisan vote through Senate Concurrent Resolution 1004 in 2025.

As of 2025, 37 states had been either researching VMT policies or rolling out the driving taxes through pilot programs. Currently, four states have active VMT tax programs for passenger vehicles: Oregon, Utah, Virginia and Hawaii.

While Arizona is among the states that have been looking into VMT taxes, it has not yet implemented any such measure. If Prop 141 passes, it will never go beyond the research stage.

What are the arguments for Prop 141?

Supporters of Prop 141 believe VMT taxes are a limit on American freedom and could lead to an invasion of privacy.

“We have some of the best geography in the entire world, and we think that it should be fundamentally protected that Arizonans have the freedom to move about as they please without the government surveilling them and spying on them. That’s just wrong,” Republican state Sen. Jake Hoffman, who introduced SRC1004, said during a Senate hearing in February 2025.

Among Hoffman’s main concerns is what role the government would play in determining how much a person drives, a process that could include GPS trackers.

“The fact that there would be anyone protecting the government’s ability to track you in your vehicle, to track your movements as you take your family all across this state, seems morally reprehensible. So, I think we need to be protecting that freedom, and that’s exactly what this does,” Hoffman said.

Aimee Yentes, the vice president of policy at the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, also believes VMT taxes would increase the price of housing.

“It will punish people who decide to live further on the outskirts, because they’re going to generate more VMT. So, it is a way to discourage sprawl or development in suburban or ex-urban areas,” Yentes told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

While opponents say VMT taxes could help bolster lagging gas tax revenues, which are used to fund transportation projects, Yentes also said other funding sources, such as Maricopa County’s half-cent sales tax, can pick up the slack.

What are the arguments against Prop 141?

Some, however, say the measure is preemptive and could make it harder to pay for roadway fixes and improvements in the future.

Democratic state Sen. Priya Sundareshan told KTAR News those projects are currently funded through the state’s gas tax. The gas tax was last raised to 18 cents a gallon in 1990 and hasn’t changed since.

“Our road funding is already inadequate, and I think people across the state know that. They see it in the conditions of the roads they drive on,” Sundareshan said.

She said funding shortages have also become more prevalent with the increasing popularity of electric vehicles.

She said the proposition would take away a potential tool that ensures the people who use the roads also pay for the upkeep.

“You don’t pay for gas, that means you don’t pay a gas tax. So, what that means for electric vehicles, currently there’s no way … to be able to have electric vehicle owners contributing to the road funding,” Sundareshan said.

She also said that there would be ways to incorporate the tax without GPS trackers, such as self-reporting during vehicle registration renewals.

What will Arizona voters see about Prop 141 on their ballots?

Here is the official ballot language for Prop 141:

OFFICIAL TITLE: AMENDING ARTICLE IX, CONSTITUTION OF ARIZONA, BY ADDING SECTION 26.

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE: PROHIBITS TAXES OR FEES BASED ON VEHICLE MILES TRAVELED AND LAWS MONITORING OR LIMITING VEHICLE MILES TRAVELED WITHOUT CONSENT.

A “yes” vote shall have the effect of amending the Arizona Constitution to prohibit: (1) taxes or fees based on motor vehicle miles traveled; and (2) laws or rules that monitor or limit motor vehicle miles traveled without consent. These prohibitions do not apply in certain instances to interstate commercial vehicles or to vehicles owned by the state or local governments.

A “no” vote shall have the effect of maintaining the current constitutional language related to taxation.

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