Alternative Fuel Tax?

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Vlad92

Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2010
Messages
23
Location
Nebraska
Is this messed up or what??? I learned today if I get a Leaf I am subject to the Nebraska Alternative Fuel Tax which requires me to pay an additional $75 a year when I register the car in order to pay my estimated fuel tax liability for using the car on state roads. I guess no gas = no gas tax revenue for the state so they have to make it up somewhere.

It's only $75, but I read about other states offering generous tax credits to get a Leaf and here I am PAYING the state.

Anyone else have something similar or is it just Nebraska?
 
There was a similar move in WA - but it is not yet passed.

"Imposing an additional licensing fee on electric vehicles."

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=6377&year=2009

Talk about the opposite of carbon tax.

But eventually, when EVs get to a large portion of the fleet (sometime in 2100 !), EVs will have to pay for the roads.
 
All those road use revenues from the gas taxes are going to be a huge problem eventually. I can see that $75 becoming a real issue (read more expensive) as EVs gain. Europe has this same problem times a factor of ten! Personally I've always favored a toll system based on weight. Fortunately for us (current or prospective EV owners), it will take some time for state legislators to catch up. In between declaring the newest Official State Reptile and filing expense accounts, they just run out of time!
 
WA has 54.4 cents/gallon of tax (including federal 18.4 cpg).

http://www.washingtongasprices.com/tax_info.aspx

I presently consume about 500 gallons of gas a year (assuming 10K miles, 20 mpg car).

WA tax income loss : $180 / year
Fed tax income loss : $92 / year
 
When I lived in England I paid a road-tax based on car size.

I think that I'd rather pay per mile - I know that would save me money as I no longer drive anywhere near the US average 12,000 miles per year.

But the folks that drive 12K or more would likely resist a per-mile charge. Then there's the problem for the state of how to track each vehicle's annual mileage.

One way or another, though, the states will have to come up with a new plan, because building and maintaining roads isn't cheap...
 
oh don't worry, if Time Of User (TOU) Metering becomes popular for EV charging at home, I'm sure they'll figure out a way to have the utilities tack on a "road use tax" to your EV power bill, that will come down the road, eventually.

Even without TOU metering, many of the new EVs are "communication capable" and could report miles driven per month to the taxing authority, where they then debit your credit card/bank for your "road taxes". Nothing in life is certain except for death and taxes, and the tax man will figure out how to extract cash from your wallet, no matter what it takes.
 
Most probably the road tax will be collected with your yearly tab / registration fee. There was already a bill for that in WA - but it didn't get anywhere.

BTW, I'd support such a tax in a few years - we shouldn't expect services without paying taxes (like tea baggers apparently do).
 
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