Featured Wisconsin Hybrid Tax- is it legal?

Ah NOVA. I remember when the beltway was being built. I was a teenager and slipping on to it and going to where it stopped that day was a favorite parking spot. I also recall listening to the Princeton-Michigan State Johnson vs Bradley game. Only on radio and clear channel at that and I drove clear around the beltway listening. Gas was cheaper then.

Now I hardly recognize it and the signage to someone not from there is atrocious.

 

IANAL, but that seems like a ripe opportunity for an enterprising lawyer to sue the WI DOT for not collecting the fee on all spark-plug using vehicles.

If the courts side with the plaintiff, then it equalizes the cost disparity between HEVs/PHEVs and gassers (and likely leading a repeal of the fee).

If the courts side with the government, it'll still likely bring some much needed notoriety to this stupid policy.

 

This type of tax where the government goes back and imposes new taxes on individuals who bought these vehicles previously is a little frightening. I could understand imposing this tax on new purchases but not going back retroactively.

In our current political climate where people promise free college for all, free medical care for all and college loan forgiveness one can only imagine the type of tax burdens the government might be proposing to pay for these 'free' services.

Every so often rumors are made about the government restructuring IRA and Roth tax rules so they can begin getting their hands on this portion of peoples money by taxing these assets. I think changing these rules retroactively and not for new accounts is also not ethical

 

Well, they finally got me. My 05 Prius plates renew in November. I just got the the renewal notice. Was$75 Now $160. 34K miles per year average

My Wife’s 13 Volt will be $185 next May. 8k miles per year average.

My Performance Model 3 $200 w/ personal plate fee included. Trending at 9k miles per year Dec 15 will be 1 year.

 

Well sounds like the Prius is the workhorse.
That Hybrid fee hurts though if you consider 10-years = $750+ hybrid preimum $3000.
But at 34k miles you are getting good savings, but for lesser miles per year Prii people it is more questionable. .

 

Yes it is. 85% of those miles are for my weekly work commuting.

 

You can contest the fee on the Prius,
If the primary fuel from the epas site is gasoline you can open a case.

I would recommend calling the governor and Scott Fitzgerald and bitch about it and encourage others to do the same.

I know some folks in Milwaukee who just quite paying registration after the EV tax, a little civil disobedience is occasionally required.

ALERT! Wisconsin G1 Owners - Contest your $75 Hybrid Fee | Honda Insight Forum

 

PLEASE NOTE...My current recommendation is that gas-only Prius owners should NOT use this procedure to contest their status at this time. You can PM me to discuss the details...but PLEASE consider delaying this if you are a gas-only Prius owner.

 

Sort of like buying a property and having the taxation rate increase after.

Mike

 

More like a neighborhood with all identical houses and the one with cable pays twice as much property tax

 

Shhh, don't give the NJ legislators any ideas. I just renewed the Spark EV registration at $39.50.

 

That’s the correct way to license a limited use vehicle

 

No Prii over there? I am confused your foucs on Gen1 Insights, can't be many?
Typically the poster-child for hybrid-tax craziness is the Highlander Hybrid which still uses quite a bit of gasoline yet we are penalizing those poor folks for having, god forbid, a hybrid.

One thing you should try to do is enlist the support of your state Auto Dealers Association. They normally realize hybrid fees (not talking plug-ins) are unfair. As much as the Autos have tried to advise against taxing hybrids, some states are doing it anyways.

 

I'm an Insight owner, but we need to nip this efficiency fee in the bud for ALL gas-only hybrids, and maybe make it too costly to punish PHEVs and EVs as well. Here's the strategy I recommend:

1) Get 1999-2003 Insight hybrids exempted from the fee. These are the most obvious ones to exempt.
(if that doesn't work, make sure other mild hybrids like Chevy Malibu Ecos are exempted, and then request a comparable exemption)
2) Request and hopefully get 2004 to 2006 Insight hybrids exempted citing the requirement for a comparable exemption with equivalent vehicles - 1999-2003 Insights.
3) Request and hopefully get exemptions for gas-only Prius on the basis that it has equivalent efficiency performance to exempted Insights.
4) Find ways to expose the fact that, without the ability to collect the fee from gas-only Prius(s), there is insufficient budget to justify the administration costs to collect EV and PHEV fees.

My feeling on this is WI DOT is not "the enemy" and would just as soon see this all go away. The more complicated it gets, the more queries and complaints, and the more times they have to change definitions and procedures, or go back to the legislature to get clarifications or changes, the more likely that someone, somewhere in power will throw up their hands and give up. It's a thought at least.

What I'm up to now, and encourage others to be up to, is checking what fees will be charged to what vehicles going forward. The WI DOT will not tell me directly, so it looks like it will require indirect methods. My method is send queries to the WI DOT on their contact form. Find a local car of interest where the VIN is available. Or contact a colleague and get the VIN for their car that they may...or may not...be selling to you. Enter the VIN on the form and then write the WI DOT request with something like:

I'm considering purchasing this (vehicle description - in my test case "2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco" I found on a Madison Craigslist dealer post that included the VIN). Is this vehicle subject to the hybrid electric vehicle surcharge?

See what you get and then we can compare it to the NTHSA VIN decoder output to see what matches with what against which vehicles trigger the fee. My test request was successful, so that means it's open season to submit as many of these requests as we can...just not all from one person (me). Keep the WI DOT working and get us the data we need.

The response to my request for whether the "2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco" is subject to the hybrid electric vehicle surcharge was a very useful start:

"This vehicle is a flex fuel vehicle and not subject to the hybrid electric vehicle surcharge."

This, despite the fact that the NHTSA VIN decoder lists:
Engine Engine Model LUK - BAS, Ecotec.
Engine Fuel Type - Primary Gasoline
Engine Fuel Type - Secondary Electric
Engine Electrification Level Mild HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle)

Sure seems to qualify as a "Hybrid Electric Vehicle" though explicitly Mild HEV

For comparison, my 2002 Honda Insight lists:
Engine Engine Model ECA1
Engine Fuel Type - Primary Gasoline
Engine Fuel Type - Secondary
Engine Electrification Level

So nothing at all indicating hybrid

The 2004 Honda Insight looks like:
Engine Engine Model ECA1
Engine Fuel Type - Primary Gasoline
Engine Fuel Type - Secondary Electric
Engine Electrification Level

So, there's the trouble with Secondary Fuel Type, but otherwise comparable to the Malibu but with Electrification Level blank.

Then, the 2015 gas-only Prius:
Engine Engine Model 2ZR-FXE+3JM
Engine Fuel Type - Primary Gasoline
Engine Fuel Type - Secondary Electric
Engine Electrification Level

Same as Insight for fuel types and electrification level...So exempt 2002 Insight to exempt 2004 Insight to exempt up to 2015 gas-only Prius

As of 2016, the Prius VIN starts showing:
Engine Electrification Level Strong HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle)

So that appears to be the first that clearly matches the WI DOT specifications. But, exempt 2015 gas-only Prius to exempt 2016 and over gas-only Prius based on the same behavior and similar performance.

I'm still waiting for WI DOT to tell me what their decision process based on VIN research is. If they continue to stonewall, I will see if there is an open records method for getting this information.

In the meantime, I'm trying to find out what registration renewals look like for 1999 to 2003 Insights, and 2004 to 2006 Insights. Is the $75 fee applied? You probably don't want to contest with a Prius yet. It will generate the "Secondary Fuel Type" "Electric" and you won't have a good basis to define the "error". It may have to wait to get the 2004-2006 Insight exempted. But, if the goal is to make WI DOT justify their process, I guess it is still a step.

Just a side note, there is a nice graphic at (search) "U. S. HEV Sales by Model" (still can't put in a real link) that shows why the WI Legislature is trying to carve in Prius vehicles for the fee. It's like they say...why does the robber rob banks...because it's where the money is...

B

 

OK I see your strategy.
The first problem we have is definitions of terms; mild hybrid, hybrid, PHEV, BEV. Many lawmakers are not familiar so that explains their support of taxes accross the board. That's the first place to start.

 

wjtracy...Please follow the link that Rmay635703 provided in Post #87 of this thread. It explains more details and some about legislative and WI DOT definitions. I can't post the link myself at the moment...

Also, there are additional, parallel discussions on this topic at the "Wisconsin yet again moving to add a special tax for Prius hybrids and plug ins" thread of this forum topic (Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News)...

B

 

Good luck! I expect to see these fees pop up in more states so if it can be repealed in WI, that'll help everyone.

Don't know whether it applies in this scenario, but WI appears to have an Open Records Law:
Wisconsin FOIA Laws | National Freedom of Information Coalition

Might be worth pursuing, especially if you get conflicting answers from WI DOT regarding similar vehicles.

 

On it:

September 19, 2019

To:
Records Custodian
Wisconsin Department of Transportation
4822 Madison Yards Way
Madison, WI 53705

Dear WI DOT Records Custodian:

Under the Wisconsin Open Records Law, §19.31 - 19.39., I am requesting an opportunity to inspect or obtain copies of public records regarding the procedure that WI DOT uses to search the vehicle identification number (VIN) for a hybrid identification that qualifies a vehicle to be subject to the $75 hybrid electric vehicle surcharge, per the statement attributed to WI DOT in the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Paper #696 dated May, 2019 and titled:

Hybrid-Electric Vehicle Fee Definition
(Transportation -- Transportation Finance)
[LFB 2019-21 Budget Summary: Page 408, #10]

"3. The Department (WI DOT) indicates under the proposed definition change, DOT would apply the
additional registration fee only to full hybrids. DOT indicates that it would search the vehicle
identification number (VIN) for a hybrid identification as only vehicles that have full hybrid
capabilities would carry this hybrid VIN identification. "

Specifically, the records of interest are those that document the VIN "Group Names", "Elements" and "Values" that are used to qualify a vehicle to be subject to the $75 hybrid electric vehicle surcharge, and any algorithms or additional research applied using those VIN values that qualify a vehicle to be subject to the $75 hybrid electric vehicle surcharge. If there are relevant procedures that are separate from those described in the above quoted section of Paper #696, please provide records that document those procedures.

I expect this information can be provided electronically, and I request a waiver of all fees in that the disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest and will contribute significantly to the public’s understanding of which vehicles are subject to the hybrid electric vehicle fee. This information is not being sought for commercial purposes.

I would request a response in writing, within the 5 days described by law, if you intend to deny this request. Also, if you expect a significant delay in fulfilling this request, please contact me with information about when I might expect copies or the ability to inspect the requested records.

If you deny any or all of this request, please cite each specific exemption you feel justifies the refusal to release the information and notify me of the appeal procedures available to me under the law.

Thank you for considering my request.

Sincerely,
...
-----------
I haven't yet submitted it formally, but have sent it to my WI DOT contacts indicating I'd rather just get the info rather than use Open Records...less adversarial I think...

B

 

Regarding this...the WI Legislature, and in fact both Gov. Walker, and now Gov. Evers know (and knew) exactly what they were doing by the time that the WI DOT was not able to come up with the $9M dollars promised...a promise that WAS based on "lack of knowledge" (also known as stupidity). I expect that is when they agreed to this new wide-open legislative definition that would include the gas-only Prius even though the only sin of those cars was that they happened to be a little more efficient than some others. Again, that's where the money was. Walker apparently was smarter about it realizing this was a losing strategy with a potentially bad reputation to follow, so he refused to go along. The legislature managed to snooker Evers into going along, though he tried to get the fee down to $32 from $75. At least I'm hoping Evers wasn't totally complicit. Just look at the Fiscal Bureau paper...all the required pros and cons are there. Evers and the WI legislators ignored the cons...

B

 

I looked up the "capacity" of the 2019 Prius (XLE...gas-only hybrid) and I was kind of shocked. The battery is still a NmH and is still 1.3 kWh, same as from 2003. That puts it firmly in the "Mild Hybrid" category according to a number of discussion pages. And the Insight is just a tiny bit smaller at .936 kWh. Also, both get in the range of 50 mpg (combined). I don't see how WI DOT will be able to justify that the Insight and gas-only Prius should be in separate categories ("Mild" former and "Full" latter - if that's how it comes out), simply based on the fact that the drive train "can power the vehicle for short distances and at low speeds". And I don't see how the VIN code comes out at "Electrification Level" "Strong HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle)" for newer Prius(s), clearly something that Toyota must have put in there. Basically, the definitions for hybrid vehicles is pretty much arbitrary. And trying to tie down a definition can't really work because these (and all "high-efficiency) vehicles are on an efficiency continuum.

If this comes to litigation, the basis would appear to be equal protection under the law for tax policy:

"Equal protection requires that classification rest on real and not feigned differences, that the distinction have some relevance to the purpose for which the classification is made, and that the different treatment be not so disparate, relative to the difference in classification, as to be wholly arbitrary."

If we get this done in Wisconsin, it maybe can get done in the other model legislation states. One nice thing about model legislation is that, if it is successfully challenged in one place, there is a pretty good chance (or at least a pretty good roadmap) to get it successfully challenged in another. Please feel free to be the first/next with a successful challenge in your state.

If we can't find a sympathetic organization to litigate, maybe we can consider a GoFundMe effort...long shot...but hey...

B