Washington State Hits EV's for Road Tax

So, is GM going to now say the Volt is not an EV?

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/02/15/washington-state-senate-passes-100-annual-fee-for-electric-vehi/

 

Ever since WA has been forced to limit the registration fees on cars they have been scouring all possible avenues for revenue.

 

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Ha ha ha only in America


Let's hit the couple thousand of low pollution vehicles with a tax and let the millions of big heavy gas guzzlers carry on regardless. What a complete back to front mentality.

 

I thought Washington State would be interested in cleaner air and reducing oil dependence.

Rep. Kelly's HR 3768 proposes the repeal of the $7500 tax rebate while the administration proposed to increase it to $10,000.

 

True gas prices? That's crazy talk! That would be admitting that the economy's based on environmental destruction, and that growth has limits....no no no, we definitely can't have that.

 

You're being far too kind, and not using nearly enough expletives.

 

Everyone says the Volt is a hybrid, and a piece of junk. As such I will not pay ANY taxes levied against EV's. Until I get the news media to apologize for slandering the Volt I will not pay a penny. Not to mention the lies, and false information. I mean after all it does only go 20 miles per charge.... So they can't be losing THAT much money in gas taxes from the Volt.

 

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Also interesting .... in the same report it stated the average yearly income of a Volt buyer is $140k (or something close). The conclusion was the poor are subsidizing the $10,000 incentive so the wealthy could buy a $47,000 vehicle.

 

The real problem is that our roadbeds are being destroyed by the continual, mostly needless use of studded tires. What we really need is a way to tax studded tire use when they are not required.

A HIGH tax on studs with a rebate based on actual need for a given area.

 

Uh, guys, "ROAD TAX" is what she is talking about, not gas tax, tax the rich, tax the poor, etc.
ALL vehicles pay road tax, as it's added to the fuel price. Except EVs. She's just closing that loophole. BTW, even propane is supposed to have road tax added to it. Not much was done to enforce that as the cost would have been rather unproductive due to the small number of vehicles using it. But EVs are the future, and they would need to add the tax eventually.
So give her the benefit of having the ability to foresee the future.

 

The question is really is it better for the state to encourage plug-ins or some sense of fairness. As you mention, this tax will do little to actually pay for roads as there are very few EVs in Washington state. There aren't even that many hybrids when you are talking about amount of the gas tax and road wear and damage.

The idea here is pure politics. The majority pay gas taxes and like their ice cars. This woman wants to pat them on the head and make it more expensive for those "rich folks" to drive their green mobiles. It may even make sense if BEVs were 2% of the lb-miles in the state instead of much much less than 1%. The solution is to actually raise gas taxes on the 99.9% which discourages its use. In Wasthington BEVs pollute much less, reduce use of imported oil, and have great deal of advantages for the public good. Its strange that I live in a very red, very oil loving state, and the state is encouraging plug-ins because both parties realize they are good for the state's long term good especially in the 4 big cities where tail pipe emissions are a problem.

 

Just a reading comprehension question, this has passed the State Senate but not the House and was not signed by the Governor, right?

 

Correct: SB5251 bill status

If you remember the last time these taxes were raised a few pennies, only a few years ago, you'd also remember why the legislators are reluctant to repeat this exercise in futility. It merely provides an easy target for the usual anti-tax initiative sponsors.

 

Really? It's in your (relatively) cheap gasprice already?

I could rant that our gasprice is WAY higher than yours AND we pay a separate roadtax to boot, but I'm just too tired...

 

Our Federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and each state adds a gas tax (8 cents in Alaska to 49.6 cents in Connecticut).

http://www.commonsensejunction.com/notes/gas-tax-rate.html

 

we pay an excise tax to our town evry year based on the value of the car. i think it's a road tax but who knows where the money goes?

 

We USians pay about the same as you do for gasoline, the differences in pump prices are all taxes.