Minnesota EV and Hybrid surcharge proposal.

And make more liars like on income tax.

 

Or folks like my uncle that drove without registration for at least 10 years
(maybe closer to 20)

 

Interesting story tell more.

 

I see your logic. Admitted, I have not done any math but how do you get this conclusion? If you drive 60 mpg Insight 15k miles/year, and someone drives 15mpg F150 the same 15k miles/year, or 25mpg Miata. Yeah, the mileage surcharge fee is going to be the same (disregarding the weight surcharge), but you are still way ahead on money saved for gas for that 15K miles you've driven. I still think there is huge cost saving in driving fuel efficient cars over gas guzzlers.

 

At least in my state and many other states that have mandatory annual inspection, falsifying odometer reading is difficult.

 

You are assuming a mileage based tax will replace a fuel tax, and not in addition to.

There is also the odometer declaration during any sales.

 

the fees dwarfed the fuel cost meaning the difference in cost between a larger vehicle and smaller one wasn’t much, maybe 10%, not enough to justify the ride

 

Really? Current surcharge on EV/PHV/HV nationwide where it is proposed seems to be $50-$200/year/car. By evenly surcharging ALL the vehicles on the road by mileage, I would think $1/1K miles would be more than enough to cover the gain from $50-$200/year/car for just on EV/PHV/HV. Again, I did not look up the real numbers, so math might be off, but I think it is within a ball park figure. $15 surcharge for all vehicles driven 15k miles for that year do not seem to tip the cost-saving balance that much.

And yes, as @Trollbait pointed out, this surcharge is in addition to current gas tax. So no change in cost of gas, or saving thereof.

 

For now we need an organized string opposition to these proposals.

Trying to come up cool up with alternative methods, and then convincing lawmakers to change is a separate, years-long fight. We can't get bogged trying to do that for now.

Unite and oppose is the best short term solution.

 

You need to pick a state to work on.
The best approach is to try to educate the legislators before the fee is enacted, sometimes they honestly do not know the differences in the vehicles out there. Once the fee is enacted, it is harder to reverse, but we did it in Virginia. That was partially due to Gov change (which we have 1-term only rule) and partially due to some hybrid-owning legislators taking up the issue as a petition. As I say most of the auto associations do not agree with hybrid fees so that is also place to start.

 

My Insight burns about $150-$180 a year of fuel, add the $25-50 of county wheel tax, the hybrid fee, registration, plus other at this point unknown mileage fees and we are easily into rediculous land.

My EV for that matter uses the same $150-180 a year of “electricity”

It is “unacceptable “ to charge more on tax than fuel and should in all cases be similar and proportional, that is why I strongly opposed fixed fees.

Imagine what the gas powered folks would do if a tax mechanism doubled their gas price?

 

A mileage based tax isn't a fixed fee, and the suggestion was to use it on all cars instead of some hybrid/plug in charge that would do little to solve the issue of funding road maintenance.

 

There are various ways to tax. For example, as 50 MPG Prius owners, we tend to like the current system. But tax by mile is fair too, we just do not like that as much.

But arbitarily taxing hybrids is unfair. If they want to say all cars over 25 MPG have to pay extra, OK that is fair, we do not like it, but it does not single out hybrids for punishment for some political reason.

 

Lawmakers want what is easy and uderstandable.

Flat fee. Boom. Done.

Again, we can talk about this all day.
Talking will not make any difference.

Someone needs to step forward and organize a united front against this.

But I will put money where my mouth is and bet that noone will do it. As I said, too much apathy.

 

I am innocent ...I have fought the battle and won

 

It is very easy to stop most cheating. Many states have inspections or smog checks where the odometer reading is reported. Also, the reading is reported upon sale. Sure, there will always be a small number that manipulate odometers. There are also people that steal gas and put credit card skimmers into gas pumps.

Mike

 

If it's so easy to stop people from doing the right thing on their income tax why haven't they stopped that?
Example, do you claim items you buy online foe sales tax? The government can check that too but to my knowledge they don't and in Indiana you are suppose to report it.

 

Same in Pennsylvania.
The why for why cheaters aren't getting caught is the same one as why the EPA doesn't test more car models themselves;
Funding

On the federal side, the IRS has an understaffing issue because of budget cuts. If you want to catch tax cheats, you have to pay for investigators.

 

As far as checking your odometer for mileage, Indiana has 92 counties and only two have pollution inspection where they ask your mileage on your vehicle. I don't know what states have emissions inspections in all their counties but in Indiana mileage is missing from 90 counties.
Do your really want the government tracking your mileage?

 

Agreed, a binary response is needed to this issue,
anyone who thinks we need a fair way to tax these cars will inevitably accept the $200 flat fee, which will later become a $500 fee and so on.

Either completely against the tax or
anything other than that including a compromise is full support.

The court of opinion and the legislation only work in black and white,
while we bicker the view becomes that everyone here fully supports flat taxes in any way the legislature imposes them.

We need to work against these taxes in a unified way WITHOUT suggesting an alternative or being wish washy or arguing as government doesn’t work that way.

Road funding has been an issue since the 90’s EVs have nothing to do with the issue and certainly did not create the issue all of a sudden. Thus the solution is irrelevant.