Wednesday, February 9, 2011

If it moves, tax it!


I note with cynical resignation that the environmentally friendly state of Oregon, having encouraged its drivers to switch to 'greener' electrically powered cars, has just realized that those who do so will avoid paying tax at the gas pump. Needless to say, they're planning to fix that right away. The Register-Guard reports:

Electric vehicle drivers won’t be getting a free ride when it comes to paying for Oregon’s roads, if advocates of an odometer fee have their way.

A bill before the Oregon Legislature aims to deal with the government’s potential beefs with a growing fleet of cars and trucks that never stop for fuel at a gas station: that they don’t ever pay the gas tax that helps cover the cost of state and local road construction and maintenance.

Under House Bill 2328, those drivers would pay a "vehicle road usage charge", starting with model year 2014 electric vehicles and plug-in gas-electric hybrids.

. . .

The ... fee would be set at 0.6 cents per gallon. That means an electric car driven 15,000 miles a year in Oregon would cost $90 in fees.

That is on par with what a 48-miles-per-gallon Toyota Prius hybrid costs in state gas taxes (at 29 cents-per-gallon) for the same distance traveled. And it’s half what the driver of a 24-mpg vehicle would pay in gas taxes driving the same distance.

The bill also requires the development of an option of tracking and reporting miles driven to protect drivers’ privacy by avoiding the use of "vehicle location technology". Instead, that option is likely to rely on technology to transmit remotely miles driven as recorded by the vehicle’s odometer, Whitty said.

Those drivers would need to use a log book or other method of documenting miles driven off of Oregon roads - for example, in other states - so they can seek a refund for the fee paid on that travel.


There's more at the link.

Yet again, government proves it's as thick as two short planks. Encourage 'green' transportation? Sure - let's offer a $1,500 State tax credit to buyers of environmentally friendly vehicles, on top of the Federal $7,500 tax credit! But wait - you mean that same 'green' transportation will mean we make less tax somewhere else? Quick - cancel the tax credit; and let's think up a new tax to protect our revenues!

Politicians! Bureaucrats! Grrr!





Peter

8 comments:

Old NFO said...

Oh...we're gonna LOSE money... wait, we can't do that... sigh... GRRRR is right!

Crucis said...

Well, that's guaranteed to kill that "green" idea. Promote something then tax it to death. Typical liberal thinking.

Anonymous said...

There is some questionable logic in giving a rebate up front to encourage green use, then taxing the money back on the back end. However, neither the author nor the two commenters believe that the users of green vehicles should pay for road maintenance or upkeep. It is not clear that they believe that if the rebate was not given, that the users of green vehicles should pay for using the roads.

It is basic economics. The roads have to be paid for somehow, either through fees or taxes. Or tolls. Privatize all the roads. Typical conservative thinking.

What is YOUR plan for paying for road maintenance?

BCFD36

Anonymous said...

They're considering similar options here in Washington. The electric cars won't use gas so they won't pay the (very high) gas taxes. A lot of the gas tax goes to road upkeep. The gas tax is actually a good way to do it since people passing through, and using your roads, will also pay for their upkeep when they fuel up.

Taxing people that own electric cars will be akin to subsidizing road use for visitors. But if we all go to electric cars nobody will be paying for road maintenance.

I don't see a clear fair option here.

Keith

Rich said...

The state getting some money in for road maintenance is appropriate.

I don't care for the method. After all, the logbook trick has no proof behind it and is an opportunity for widespread cheating.

Perhaps they could tack a small elec. rate tax onto people who own electric cars, and then take a cut from electric charging stations. Perhaps the home tax is 1/2 the proper rate and the charging stations pay twice the rate. It's not really fair, but it beats Big Brother.

In any case, the rebate is silly, and the state apparently wants to substitute a big brother box for the simple expedient of ... wait for it ... reading the odometer!

perlhaqr said...

Doesn't the state already tax electricity sales? Why not just apportion some of that revenue for road maintenance? Even if they aren't buying gasoline or diesel, they'll be buying more electricity. So, they'll be paying proportionally more tax via that electricity purchase.

Steve said...

I agree with the general sentiment of Politicians and bureaucrats(but I repeat myself) screwing this up.

There has to be a reasonable way for road use to be supported. They sure should not have the authority to put "monitoring abilities" in any private car. reading the odometer at vehicle registration, then using a simple per mile calculation seems the fairest to me.

The credit on the front end to defray the higher per cost scale makes some sense, to help spur quicker adoption.

Of course, that will only work until the electric grid crashes.

Sigh. Where's my bicycle?

Steve

Ami said...

Know why all the trees in Washington lean South?

Because OREGON SUCKS.

Two counties elected the former 2 term loser idiot moron Kitzhaber... it's only gonna get worse.

Of course no one can afford to move out of Oregon these days.

Or at least I can't.