When people drive more than 100 miles for dialysis, surgery and other services not available locally, a distance-based fee system to help pay for the nation’s roads and bridges just isn’t right.

Thumbs up to U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack for successfully blocking the use of funds by the U.S. secretary of transportation to research or implement the system known as vehicle miles traveled in the House approved appropriations bill, now awaiting action in the Senate. And, Cravaack stripped the Senate’s VMT provision in the transportation reauthorizing conference report signed into law by the president July 6.

A VMT, as it is called, would tax drivers based on the distance they travel. Under the VMT tax, every automobile on the road would need to be fitted with a device that both records miles driven and transmits the information to a government database. This complicated system would cost millions of dollars and raise a number of concerns.

A VMT system could be disastrous for Borderland residents and visitors. Like we said at the start of this editorial, many people who live in Borderland are forced to drive to places elsewhere for dialysis and other services not now available locally. Should these folks be taxed for the miles they are forced to drive to get necessary medical services?

And imagine the impact to the tourism industry that helps drive our local economy. Midwest vacationers that have come to love our lakes and forests might stay closer to home because of the increased costs of travel under a VMT system.

The VMT is being considered now because the federal tax on gasoline, the primary method since 1956, has lost one-third of its buying power since it was last raised in 1993. The federal gas tax — 18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline, 24.4 cents for diesel — is growing weaker because of more fuel-efficient vehicles, Americans driving fewer miles and the growth of electric and alternative-fuel vehicles. The tax rate on gasohol and most other special fuels is much less.

Kudos to Cravaack for seeing clearly the impact of a VMT system in his district. And we urge him to help find a better solution for funding of our roads, bridges and transit projects.