Community Forums

blackf3504dr · 12-30-2012, 05:03 AM

We are heading to a "pay as you go" mileage tax to replace the taxes placed on a per gallon basis. This would make for a level playing field, but then all vehicles would be required to have a GPS to report miles driven for taxing purposes.
I agree the electric cars have had a free ride on our public road ways and they do need to pay. As it stands now, we (tax payers) subsidize the building of electric vehicles then subsidize them again by allowing them to operate on the roads while paying no road use tax.

swampdog2 · 12-30-2012, 05:04 AM

so how do boat owners get their road tax back when they purchase gas for the boat and don't use the roads or gas powered golf carts that don't use the roads or gas powered lawn mowers and weed eaters that don't use the road .so be fair and give the tax back on all this !!!

KSCRUDE · 12-30-2012, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swampdog

so how do boat owners get their road tax back when they purchase gas for the boat and don't use the roads or gas powered golf carts that don't use the roads or gas powered lawn mowers and weed eaters that don't use the road .so be fair and give the tax back on all this !!!

The majority of boats are towed down the ROAD to get to the lake. Out here in farm country all farmers can buy road diesel and tax free off road diesel for farm equipment. So many farmers would run the off road fuel in their pickups and trucks that about 20 years ago they started dying all off road diesel red. Now the highway patrol does road side checks and checks at sale barns and they stab your tanks and if it comes up red you get a big fine. Third offense and it is a &10,000 fine. They all have bulk tanks on the farms where they usually keep the two fuels side by side. Some still sneak by but they have stopped most of the tax cheaters. Electric cars are so over priced and so impractical due to their short range, hence cost more to drive then their gas counterparts. They are many years away from them becoming mainstream. The government gives you a tax credit just to get people to buy them. A few are total electric, but the most popular like the Chevy Volt can run on gas after they go their 50 or 60 miles on the battery. I don't own a electric car yet, and I am in the crude oil business, but I don't think they should tax the electric cars, as they have zero emissions. And I am about as far from a liberal tree hugger as you can get. We have enough taxes as it is and it will only get worse, not better.

laj · 12-30-2012, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swampdog

so how do boat owners get their road tax back when they purchase gas for the boat and don't use the roads or gas powered golf carts that don't use the roads or gas powered lawn mowers and weed eaters that don't use the road .so be fair and give the tax back on all this !!!

There are tax forms, both fed and state you fill out and send in at the end of the yr. with your tax forms. Just keep records of that gas or diesel.
Been doing it for yrs v

greezykid · 12-30-2012, 07:35 AM

I don't know how anybody could be happy about any new tax.

CampDaven · 12-30-2012, 07:45 AM

Road use taxes on electric cars has been on the minds of legislators for a very long time. It will eventually bring the cost of such cars to more of an equal par on road use tax. $100 is chump change compared to us petrol users.
This tax has been a political football in that the TCO of electric cars lags behind other cheap small petrol cars that get the same gas mpg

Fred1609 · 12-30-2012, 07:51 AM

Its a fair tax, based on a user pay system. I would suggest its a start and the tax will continue an upward climb with the increase of electric cars coming in the future. Fair is fair.

CampDaven · 12-30-2012, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred1609

Its a fair tax, based on a user pay system. I would suggest its a start and the tax will continue an upward climb with the increase of electric cars coming in the future. Fair is fair.

Yep! There will be exemptions for non road use, but all others will pay. There was a proposal a while back for about 1.4 cents per mile.

Rick & Hope · 12-30-2012, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terry Walter

We live in the Bay Area and theirs about 7 Bridges that are all around the area and it seem that no mater which direction you want to go in (except South) with our M.H. we have to cross a bridge and just because we toe a car and our M.H. has a tamdom axle in the back they charge $5.00 per axle.

It cost us $25.00 when ever we cross a bridge in this area,

Just a thought.

Be glad you don't have to cross the George Washington bridge into New York with a loaded semi. $90.00 and people wonder why their groceries cost so much.

RickO · 12-30-2012, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Francesca

Good grief...who said anything about golf carts???

This is for registered road vehicles.

Or are there so many golf carts in Arizona that they're issuing plates and requiring liability ins. for them now???

Unless I misread your OP... YOU did.

My golf cart is electric. If a vehicle is driven on public roads in this state it must be registered and street legal, and yes, liability insurance is required. I have complied with these requirements even though I only utilize a one block stretch of public road... and it's a dead end road to boot. I don't see how the number of golf carts in Arizona would be relevant.

I understood the point of your OP to be that your state was taking steps which would, in your mind, partially correct what you see as a tax inequity which favored electric vehicles. I simply pointed out that there would be new areas of inequity created.

Having said all of that, I understand that golf carts are corner cases and I have no problem with the taxing scheme you described for the "greater good"

Rick

wa8yxm · 12-30-2012, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSCRUDE

Road tax is a lot higher on diesel. Trucks pay about 85% of the road tax in the USA. Hence trucks (own) the road.

Actually the post office owns the road.. Check it out, it's in the Constitution of the United States.
The government has the authority te establish POSTAL ROADS.

Just having fun with you, don't take it wrong.

Fact: Back when I was working I kept a copy of said Constitution in my locker.. We'd get "clients" who would say "I know my rights and you be violatin' my rights" when we did not give them immed access to a phone to make their call.. I'd hand the trooper a copy (I kept multiple copies) he'd hand it to Mr. Arreted, and say "Show me where it says TELEPHONE" (which of course had not yet been invented when the document was written"

I do, by the way, know where it says you get your phone call.. but the idiots (mr. Arrested) never figured it out.

Craig_R · 12-30-2012, 11:28 AM

First I want to say that I agree with Francesca that it's high time that the owners of electric cars made an effort to "pay their fair share" (to borrow a phrase).

While I don't believe that an electric car covers anywhere near the 12-15K miles per year of the average automobile due to it's restricted range, I do believe that owners will try to maximize that mileage. So just for giggles, let's just say that the average electric car travels half that, or around 6,500 miles per year. Let's also apply the 2012 CAFE Standards expected fuel mileage for passenger cars of 30.7 mpg. Consider that Washington State has on of the highest gasoline tax rates in the nation at $0.375 per gallon.

Now if we do the math we get the equivalent for a gas powered car traveling those same 6,500 miles using the 30.7 mpg 2012 CAFE Standard.

6,500 miles/30.7 mpg = 211.73 gallons annually consumed (rounded up)
$0.375/gallon gas tax x 211.73 gallons = $79.40 tax per year

One article I read said that if the owner of an EV charges regularly they could expect to travel a maximum of 900 miles/month or 10,800 miles annually. Using the math above that would generate $131.92 of tax revenue per year. So you can see that even though the $100 annual tax for an EV is a bit biased to high mileage drivers it is probably reflective of the total miles traveled by EVs in the state.

According to http://www.api.org/oil-and-natural-g...e-Tax-Map.ashx total tax at the pump in Washington is $0.559/gallon. This would include Federal, State and Local taxes. This legislation is a beginning, but until it is adapted at the Federal level and across the remaining 49 states, it's just a drop in the bucket.

palehorse89 · 12-30-2012, 12:05 PM

As I watched and read this thread I wondered how someone could be excited about someone else getting taxed more when that person spent tens of thousands of dollers to get a really small tax break from a goverment clean air program to try and clean up the air you breath. You did not spend the money or take part in the program but wish higher taxes on the people who did? Makes me wonder......

Francesca · 12-30-2012, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greezykid

I don't know how anybody could be happy about any new tax.

Naturally, I'd be a lot happier if instead they just let us ALL off the pay-for-the-roads hook, like they've been doing for the electric folks...but since that ain't gonna happen I guess I'll keep rejoicing over Washington State's new " Electric's no holier than gas is" policy!