Featured Gov. Greg Abbott signs electric vehicle fee into law

When I worked at General Electric, there was a time I was sent as an internal 'consultant' to help optimize their VAX/VMS systems. I soon learned there were a few GE facilities that genuinely wanted to improve what they were doing and others that wanted to use my software and techniques as a weapon against other GE teams. In the bad places, it was as if everyone was walking around with an invisible knife in their back. There was no hard and fast rule but usually the further away from a headquarters facility, the more likely to find a collaborative, working together work place. I actually got to see this change in practice at my last GE facility.

With about 100 employees, everyone knew pretty much everyone else and often collaborated across groups to accomplish innovative, low-cost solutions for their customers. I joined and working together, we got 'the big contract.' Then division headquarters began to send 'help'.

The first symptom was seeing the brightest, hard working employees who were key to winning the work ... leave the company. They had materially contributed the innovations that led to our win yet having won, they left which confused me.

As we expanded, the barriers grew between groups, especially those soon led by the new faces from headquarters. I noticed the change but was too busy with my work to pay much attention to 'the front office.' Eventually the toxic environment reached my team and a former employee helped me escape GE before they moved the work to another state and then sold the division. These were the days of 'neutron' Jack Welch.

Working at Boeing Aerospace on NASA contracts and subsequent contractors I noticed to a greater or blessed less degree the difference between a cooperative and combative workplace. It was the one problem I could see it but was never able to effectively solve.

Bob Wilson

 

People don't quit jobs. They quit managers.

 

Last time, I kind of quit the structure that was above my manager. He was doing what he could.

 

I called ‘firing’ the management.

Bob Wilson

 

Bad managers - bad states circling the drain - wiki definitions .... nothing about homelessness and Fentanyl deaths yet ..... i forgot - what was the topic again?

.

 

'conversation' strikes again

 

To segway onto OP's topic - this isn't the first state that requires road taxes to be picked up by an alternate source when vehicles stop using gas. It's likely many will follow suit. Noticing how the Texas legislation doesn't require e-motorcycles to pay. Since the heaviest vehicles create the most amount of wear & tear on roads - the exemption seems rational.
The only other way for "the man" to get his Road repair money might be a tax on tires. Little ones for little/lighter cars would be paying less tax & bigger/heavy (causes most road wear) interstate type Trucking tires that cause more wear and tear would have a larger tax. More driving equals more tires - equals more wear - so they pay more & more tax.
A tire / road wear tax would have to be Federal because scofflaws would buy their tires out of state if they could, to avoid tax.
.

 

Oh you really, really don't want tire taxes. Major safety issue, people are already loath to replace them when they're cracked and bald.

My $0.02: Drop the fuel tax altogether and institute an odometer/logbook tax for heavy trucks.

Heavy commercial vehicles are wearing the roads vastly more than anything under 10k pounds. Also they're already regulated so it's not much more for the fleet managers to handle, and the businesses operating them are already positioned to pass those costs on to their customers.

EDIT: adding that this also circumvents the data privacy issues associated with tracking private vehicles, which has come up when discussing accurately taxing EVs for actual road usage.

 

This really was an item for the car dealers lobby's. These are the same folks that made sure when there was a state tax credit for plug-ins they had to be sold in a texas dealership (everyone but tesla). Tesla can't sell in state because car manufacturers can't be dealers. That made the requirement that vehicles made in the Tesla plant would need to be shiped out of state where texans could buy them on-line. They don't really care about motorcycle competition.

The state road tax on gasoline is really small $0.20/gallon. That equates the state gas tax to EVs the same as if a 20 mpg gasoline vehicle went 15,000 miles a year. Its not crazy. I expect in the next decade many texans will switch to plug-in pick up trucks and SUVs. The problem comes if you aren't driving much the incentive is for an ICE, which is not that good for texas. Texas does have the toyota truck plant here, so they really don't want to help the electric F150 lightning.

Tire taxes are a terrible idea. I do like that texas does have safety inspections, which gets some people with bad tires to replace them. Most states do not, so a tire tax would likely keep more unsafe tires on the road in most states.

 

Yes, Exactly! Gary Vaynerchuck is constantly reminding his clients that employers work for their employees and when you think your employees work for you then you create selfish expectations for people who aren't getting paid enough to do what you expect. If you want awesome, reliable and competent employees, then you need to work hard for them!

 

Yes, but huge EVs like the 10K pound hummer EV are moving into the market... Also the regulation of large trucks is way behind because of lobbyists who kept emissions controls out of the picture until 2007 and many of these trucks, especially logging trucks haul loads so heavy they'd never be allowed on roads today if they weren't grandfathered in, but proposed for the first time.

 

Eh, some of those logging trucks are burning home heating oil instead of (taxed) highway diesel. No solution is going to give complete and perfect coverage.

I haven't heard a better idea yet.

 

As rational as a 2000 Ranger with a gross combined weight of 4800 pounds paying a higher truck registration fee than a Crown Vic that can be over 3 tons with a trailer paying the car fee in NJ. Or a Tahoe paying the car rate because it's a 'station wagon' in Pa.

The weight difference between an ICE and BEV car makes no difference to a road designed for commercial trucks. More rain could lead to more top coat wear. This Texas bill has a Model 3 paying an effective rate equal to even heavier vehicles.

 

Shouldn't they build and maintain roads as a public service? That's what governments are supposed to provide; infrastructure that is too expensive or complex or so widespread that individuals can't build it without the force of regulations and eminent domain to back it up.

Why would they need to charge extra for imaginary wear and tear when the average car is causing (by definition) an average amount of wear? If we charged everyone for their use of the public infrastructure, we'd find a way to levy an entry fee for every time that a lobbyist attempts to talk to a politician or other public servant.

 

You wouldn't get a complaint out of me for doing it that way, but it seems that socialist policies are harder to sell lately.

 

We've advanced enough as a technological society for the weight of your vehicle, the speed at which you drive and the roads you drive on can directly calculate your share of the cost of maintaining that road and that money could sit in a designated account for when that specific road work is done and only then is the amount charged. That would be the most fair way to do it...

Of course the wealthy elite and their so called democratically elected servants prefer that we just put all our money in a big pile and let them decide how to spend it... And as this thread covers, they especially enjoy making those who are "woke" (aka: considerate & conscientious) and don't serve the status quo as much as the wealth worshipers should be charged more out of spite/punishment.

 

and then we have an excise tax which pays for...

why-does-massachusetts-have-motor-vehicle-excise-tax

 

But you can deduct that off the federal tax. Can't with these flat rate registration fees.

 

i don't think so

 

"Enter vehicle license registration fee if based on value (ad valorem) under Personal Property taxes."
Page 3 of, https://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/schedule_a_itemized_deductions_4012.pdf