Electric Cars and Gasoline Tax

Big oil in the form of the Koch brothers have lobbied hard for fixed EV taxes that are typically charged at a much higher rate than a gas economy car would pay on annual fuel tax.

They have had great success in getting many states to adopt half cocked, poorly thought out, penalties for the less than 1% of people that are EV and plug in owners.
In one case the tax was challenged by the Sierra Club and overturned by the Supreme Court .
In my state a typical gas economy car pays about $50-$75 a year in tax but EVs have to pay triple the annual registration cost for the privilege of avoiding that $50-$75 of road taxes, (doesn’t make sense)
In my state I pay about $600ish a year of taxes on utilities, so I would argue that EVs already pay plenty of taxes that normal road going cars don’t and perhaps this should be considered for the 5000 electric car owners in this state as good enough.

Sadly in my case this issue was 100% decided on party lines and 100% enacted because of an extensive effort by Koch lobbiests, the tax was even a campaign promise by one republican but he failed to fully enact his “Prius tax” thank god

Koch has been pushing this “not paying their fair share” nonsense for over a decade and is trying to get hybrids that don’t plug in paying the EV fee as well, luckily there has been enough outrage that only plug in hybrids are taxed extra but I still believe this is completely opposite of what we should’ve doing.

It’s not like we need to be making more incentives to buy Suburbans and Pickups after all.

 

It is not false, your statement is.
You walking on a road causes damage. It is negligible, but the damage does happen.

Now, the rest of your points I agree with.
Cars under 5000 lbs cause very little damage to roads. EVs should pay as much as any gas vehicle towards the highway funds.
I feel ALL vehicles, gas, electric, hydrogen or other, should pay a fee based on miles driven and weight.
And yes, I agree trucks should pay in concordance with how much damage they cause.

 

Are we gonna start splitting hairs again?

 

Good point.

 

Don't we already pay taxes on electricity sold by utilities? Why not funnel some funds for roads from there? Drive more = more electricity used = more taxes paid. Of course I'm much to smart to be successful in politics.

 

electricity tax should be for improving the grid and alt elec. sources. gas tax just needs to be increased, which most pols refuse to do for fear of voter backlash.

 

The UK govt even taxed daylight back in history! There are still some buildings standing with the windows bricked up to avoid having to pay the tax.

Budget 2013: Oddest taxes in British history - Telegraph

 

Albeit indirect the area I live in does something similar, property tax is affected by the size and number of windows visible from the road.

If you want to modify or even put siding over a window there is a special committee that has to be paid and approve your building permit and review the affects of your change to the community.

Process can take months.

 

Around here, you see abandoned farm silos buildings with the roof missing so they are not taxed on the structure.

 

Used to be like that in Cyprus back in the 70s. Until you put a roof on your dwelling house there was no tax or rates to pay. Lots of places were lived in but never capped with roofing.

 

Not to worry. The state legislatures are raising gas tax at a rate far exceeding the MPG improvements benefits of most cars.

Now the electric car issue is a newer problem for them. The problem there is most utilities are not meeting the current electricity demand in the summer. Our electric company uses the internet to reduce demand a few hours on the hoter days. How to tax for road use has yet to reach most of their minds.

 

not in massachusetts

 

Or Wisconsin

 

we had an automatic increase system, and the voters killed it.

 

What happens when the power goes out???

Lots of people in the fire areas with no electricity.

I'll stick with a hybrid, with a gas tank always kept near full.

 

We did too and it was removed

 

the gas pumps don't work

 

I'm always near full. So I got 500-600 miles worth to bug out of town. Providing of course, that the roads are accessible and not jammed-packed.

I think I'm screwed.

(But the AC will work for quite awhile with a full tank. )

No electricity.... No gas..... we are ALL screwed!