Highway Use Fee

[RNeil]

The state of Virginia is charging electric and fuel efficient vehicles a highway use fee.

In my opinion, climate change and dependence on Russian oil is caused by the oil consumers. This should be discouraged. Electric and fuel efficient cars help and should be encouraged.

One advantage of an electric or fuel efficient cars car is you save money on fuel. But government wants to reduce that advantage. It encourages gas consumption by prioritizing keeping gas prices low. This includes the gas tax, which is not quite enough for our infrastructure maintenance and improvements. I think that until the EV segment gets established, the gasoline consumers can pay for the infrastructure. I also think they should pay for our defense expenditures. If they raise the gas tax, they could also reduce the income tax.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

How much is the charge? It's $100 annually per car in IL.

 

[Drew21]

We're all using the roads, so it makes sense that we should all contribute to their maintenance. I for one would gladly pay an annual road use fee if it would go towards turning the road craters into mere potholes here in Massachusetts.

I can imagine an equitable scenario where drivers pay a use fee indexed by vehicle weight and annual mileage, as these would be good (and measurable) proxies for wear and tear to the infrastructure.

In other words, an 80K pound 18-wheeler traveling back and forth across the country would be charged a much higher use fee than my family's 3300 pound Leaf or 2500 pound Honda Fit, which together were driven <10K miles in the past year.

 

[RNeil]

The fee is about $118 per year. If you have the spyware, you can pay a little more than one cent per mile, up to a maximum of $118/year.

I agree that weight should be considered. They are taxing the light weight Honda Fit assuming that it causes the same road wear per mile as much heavier vehicles.

 

[alozzy]

I agree that weight should be considered. They are taxing the light weight Honda Fit assuming that it causes the same road wear per mile as much heavier vehicles.

A fair system would be based on both vehicle weight and on emissions (healthcare costs in USA, due to air pollutants, is estimated to be $2500 annually, per person).

 

[oxothuk]

I agree that weight should be considered. They are taxing the light weight Honda Fit assuming that it causes the same road wear per mile as much heavier vehicles.

Keep in mind that most EVs are significantly heavier than directly comparable ICEs.

 

[alozzy]

I agree that weight should be considered. They are taxing the light weight Honda Fit assuming that it causes the same road wear per mile as much heavier vehicles.

Keep in mind that most EVs are significantly heavier than directly comparable ICEs.

Nothing wrong with that and it might even have people reconsider a bigger battery.

 

[SageBrush]

We're all using the roads, so it makes sense that we should all contribute to their maintenance.

Yes, but we are all NOT damaging them equally. Moreover, our associated pollution is wildly divergent and untaxed.

There is a lot more to fix here than a pothole

 

[GerryAZ]

Generating stations and both transmission and distribution utilities pay lots of taxes (which are all rolled into the rate base for consumers to pay) so we are paying taxes indirectly.