Hey everyone here's some great news: States look to tax hybrid and electric car owners to recoup road funding | Fox News
It's all about the money. It's like all of those "traffic enforcement" camera. They're ONLY "raison d'etre" is to make money. There is NO judicial review. They just ding your credit report, if you don't pay. Quite a few states have outlawed them.
I think these "Hybrid" tax's are ridiculous, and I thought so BEFORE I bought my Prius. How can this nation, and individual states pay lip service to wanting to promote a better environment, and preserve air quality but then Tax me for owning a hybrid? Fine...I'm using less gas and therefore not paying as much in "gas tax"....but conversely? I'm also not polluting the environment as much as a regular ICE. So how about my "Hybrid" bonus for keeping the state's air quality cleaner? Let's just say my "bonus" should offset the Tax and call it even? I think adopters of Electric Vehicles and Hybrid ownership should be promoted. It's ridiculous that States are so greedy as to want to squeeze a little more revenue out of people that have already paid an ownership premium for the benefits of owning a Hybrid or electric vehicle. I just think, overall efficiency in vehicles should be promoted, Electric, Hybrid, or even improving ICE's. "Uh Oh! These vehicles are too efficient....so let's just tax them directly"....simply is not fair. Where do you draw the line? A tax on hybrids is promoting "inefficiency". As in "Don't get TOO good a gas mileage".
Crying Shame. Perhaps they should increase income tax on filers over $250,000 annual in Gross Income. They seems to be the group who can most afford new taxes for roads. Prius drivers tend to be the Middle Class salt of the earth types, working hard, paying more then the fair share of taxes, paying the mortgage, putting little Johnny and Sally through College, helping grandma, and yes saving for retirement. They can also be the ones who just graduated college, debt up to the eye balls, trying to get a decent paying job, trying to form a household, buy a house and start a family. The last thing they need is more stinking taxes !
Fuel taxes are a way for users of the roads to pay for some of the improvements/upkeep. In California at about 25mpg I used to pay about $420/year in state and federal fuel taxes. This year I expect to pay about $140, perhaps less. My usage of the roads by vehicle weight and miles traveled is pretty much the same. What happens to the already deteriorating roads as more and more vehicles pay less and less for maintenance?
Imagine several toll booths on a 20 mile trip traveling through a major metropolitan area. Its a good thing the Prius doesn't us any gas while stopped in traffic. Of course building and maintaining those tool booths will keep the tolls high.
We have unmanned toll roads in California. The system is called fastrack Gas tax is fine. It will push people into Hybrid and EV to save $
I don't remember including manpower in the cost of multiple toll booths. When the toll is $4 for a mile long or even 5 mile long bridge the FastTrack is cost effective. For 5 miles of urban highway it doesn't make much sense.
Works fine for long highways, for urban roads, not so much. What's epa rating? I don't think it would relate to how much and hard you use the roads.
I drove in a rental SUV with 3 coworkers from Virginia to Manhattan one weekend after training was completed. The tolls were $75. Crazy right. Used fastrack the entire trip. Never stopped. Still expensive. I believe that we should not raise taxes at all but gov to learn to manage better with what they have. That is a tall order. They just need to find a way.
States look to tax hybrid and electric car owners to recoup road funding I know we've heard this before. It hasn't gone away. Bottom line is governments always want money, and they're always reaching for the low-hanging fruit. But it seems inappropriate to go after hybrid and electric vehicle owners after all the campaigns and incentives to push us in this direction. We're being herded back and forth like cattle. This part concerns me even more: To go in that direction means the government gets to monitor the details of your driving habits. There's a civil liberties issue there, assuming we still care about civil liberties.
