It is, ALEC (probably, that’s where all the most regressive laws come from) wrote the same legislation for Michigan.
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I advocate not trying to replace shortfalls in road funds from declining gas tax revenue by creating per-mile EV taxes. There are many reasons, but the primary two are:
- Don’t disincentivize adoption of EVs while the fucking world is burning, and
- Everyone benefits from roads, even the annoying twerp who rides his bike to work and never leaves his trendy gentrified neighborhood. (He has a secret Hummel addiction)
The pay-per-use model for roads remind me very much of the arguments I hear from childless or empty-nester people why they shouldn’t have to pay taxes to support schools. It’s bullshit. We all benefit from the common good.
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“The price of an EV is about $55,000,”
He also used the $7500 tax subsidy for electric cars AGAINST the idea of buying an electric car.
That is, the government is giving you $7500 to detract from the putative $55000. But his logic seems to be “we’re gonna have to tax you more to pay for that $7500, so I’m gonna add that $7500, not subtract that $7500, from the total cost.” (Basically, there’s no point to ANY tax incentives, because “you always pay for it anyway”-- or, in his illogic, you somehow pay for it TWICE.)
Complete GQP lunacy.
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The vehicles that damage pavement most are large, heavy vehicles used for commercial enterprises. Those users should be taxed at a much higher rate than most passengers vehicles. Giant pickup trucks and humongous SUVs should pay more than the tiny “SUVs” that are barely bigger than my stupid Prius, too. Sadly, taxing heavier passenger vehicles will end up being regressive, too, as the giant gas-guzzlers of the early to mid- 00’s have filtered down the economic ladder.
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Agreed, but for the most part, they do at least pay more through gas taxes on those inefficient vehicles. Just not at the x-cubed rate that they should to reflect the mass of their vehicle.
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But should continue to pay a larger share of the road costs even if they replace those vehicles with electric trucks, no?
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It was my understanding that they are, that large commercial vehicle registration fees are based on tonnage.
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No(?). Again, at this stage, why disincentivize conversion to electric? Maybe I’m biased, in that a forest fire sparked by global warming in a freaking temperate rainforest came way too close to burning my house down, but we have to get our society off fossil fuels.
And there is no false equivalency with public transport. Yes, let’s do both. No reason not to. I’m all on board with restructuring our transportation systems around public transportation in the long term. But we have to recognize that it is a long-term goal and not something that can be changed like flipping a light switch.
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I don’t think we should disincentivize conversion to electric, I just think it’s a good idea to have a system where people who use certain public resources more than others pay a roughly proportionate share of the cost.
When your business can put unlimited wear and tear on roads without worrying about the cost then you have little financial incentive to structure your business in such a way that puts less dependency on those roads.
I believe in subsidizing public transport, but you start running into perverse incentives when you completely decouple the cost of travel from the people doing the traveling.
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That’s what these fees do, though. The owner paid for the vehicle, pays for it’s maintenence, and pays for the energy to run it. Many owners have calculated their ROI on an EV based on no longer paying for gas; now you’re throwing that calculus off by charging almost as much for road use as they would have paid for gas? That’s bullshit.
Who was talking about business? Commercial vehicles already pay based on mileage per vehicle weight. No one is saying to change that.
I’m not sure whether you’re saying there should always be a nominal cost to travel (not sure I agree but it’s not what I was saying, either) or using free public transit to contrast with”free roads” for private vehicles. If the latter, it should be noted that, as I pointed out, private vehicle travel is not by any means free, whether the roads are free to use or not.
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I’m not just talking about commercial trucks on public highways; lots of businesses, including multibillion dollar companies, are built around free use of public roads. Think Uber & DoorDash among others.
I’m saying that if you could take a car or a train or whatever to anywhere in the country for free then a lot of people would be doing a lot more traveling than they would in a system where there is some kind of cost associated with travel, whether or not that cost reflects the full social cost of the transportation infrastructure involved.
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Oh, no, I’m against those regardless. Don’t hang Uber’s bullshit on my proposal just to make it stink.
Sounds like paradise, frankly.
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A tandem gravel train does nearly infinite more damage to our roads than me in my stupid Prius or 2600 lb sports coupe travelling the same route 100 times for their 1. They’re not adequately paying for the damage they do to Michigan roads. Especially considering how many time I “randomly” come across such vehicles on my neighborhood Class B and C roads. 
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https://www.in.gov/bmv/fees-taxes/vehicle-registration-fees-and-taxes/
All hybrid or electric vehicles that are required to be registered are subject to a supplemental registration fee. This fee is part of the state’s road funding package passed by the General Assembly in 2017. The fee will be paid when the vehicle is first registered and at every renewal.
While most of the 30 states charge a flat annual fee, California, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, and Utah have created a structure where the annual fees fluctuate in conjunction with the consumer price index and inflation.
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Ok, so the fee chart in your link says it’s $150 a year for electric vehicles. The gas tax in Indiana is 7%, and the average American spends around $2400 a year on gas (probably more lately) meaning that the electric car driver would still be paying a little less tax per year than an average gasoline car driver.
(Edit to add: I made a mistake earlier and was only considering the 7% sales tax on gas. Turns out that in Indiana there’s a separate 33 cent per gallon State tax in addition to that sales tax. And that’s not to mention the federal gas tax. So drivers of gas cars there pay significantly more than $150/year in fuel taxes)
Some people drive more than others so the folks who don’t drive much are paying more than their share, but on average they aren’t getting screwed.
A tax-per-mile-driven system would make this more fair, but maybe they figured it’s too much work to implement when we’re just talking about $150/year.
Did you not notice the part where it’s not a set fee but subject to change based on other economic markers?
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I’m going off of the current fee chart that was referenced in the Indiana state website that you linked to:
If the state website isn’t accurate then tell me where I can find the current fee.
Same here in Georgia. I have a Chevy Bolt, and pay a flat $218/year in EV road tax. I only put about 3,000 miles per year on it (I work at home), so yeah, I’m paying about 6-7 times what an ICE car owner would pay in GA gas tax for similar miles driven. Road taxes should be mileage based – still not perfect, but fairer.
I’m just glad not to have to get an annual emissions inspection. What a hassle that is.
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