On 11/07/2014 10:50 AM, Paul Dove via EV wrote:
Not really! The government must collect taxes to pay for roads. Previously it was done by taxing fuel. You can tax electricity to pay for roads because how would you know which part went into the vehicle. So they have to devise another way
The problem is they keep throwing "fair" into the equation and that will just make it complicated and expensive. I bet it costs more to collect these devised taxes than they gain.
"Fair" says people using the roads should pay for their upkeep whether they live here or not. Gas tax works in general because if you're from out-of-state but here for any length of time you'll have to buy gas here. And if you're a resident traveling elsewhere you'll be buying your gas elsewhere to pay for road upkeep there.
I believe you meant to say "can't tax electricity." They could do it by requiring separate metering for EVSEs. Complicated and expensive and doesn't account for out-of-staters.
Oregon says they're going to charge 1.5cents per mile for miles traveled within the state for vehicles that get 55mpg or greater. Complicated and expensive to track.
I say let's redefine "fair" a bit to say if you live in the state the roads are your responsibility. Virtually every state has some sort of semi-regular inspection or registration program. Report the current mileage on your car and pay the tax on that (over time would be nice). Do away with the gas tax and make EVERYONE pay this way. Quick and easy to collect and reasonably fair.
Perhaps we make it apply to vehicles under 6000 pounds and keep the gas tax for big trucks. They're the ones that cause the most road damage anyway.
Of course tax dodgers would register their vehicles in another state but we have that problem now with people trying to avoid property tax.
One reason they won't want to do this is because it would suddenly make the tax visible. In my state a 25mpg car will take about 600 gallons to drive 15,000 miles and I'll pay $150 in fuel tax (and about $135 in sales tax). If they charged me a penny a mile, that same 15,000 miles would cost me the same $150 but I would actually see a bill for it. And I wouldn't be paying it a couple dollars at a time like I do now. Legislators know voters hate that kind of thing.
--Rick _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
