Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumWashington State Senate passes $100 annual electric car fee
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) The Washington state Senate has passed a bill to charge electric car owners a $100 annual fee to compensate for the lack of gas taxes they pay.
Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, the Camano Island Democrat who sponsored the bill, says while electric cars are good for the environment, they put the same wear and tear on the state's roads that gas vehicles do.
The same bill passed in the Senate last year but failed in the House.
Washington's gas tax stands at 37.5 cents per gallon, and is the state's largest source of transportation dollars.
The bill does not apply to hybrid vehicles or to those that don't exceed 35 mph.
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/WA-Senate-passes-100-annual-electric-car-fee-3305434.php
Kennah
(14,315 posts)provis99
(13,062 posts)TheWraith
(24,331 posts)A regular driver would probably pay several times as much in gas taxes over the course of a year.
wtmusic
(39,166 posts)and keep the change.
johnd83
(593 posts)Right now there are so few it doesn't really matter. In the future it might be an issue but right now we just need to get as many on the road as possible and adding a tax doesn't help much.
txlibdem
(6,183 posts)Do they pay 2900 times the gas tax? Nope. Do they pay 2900 times the vehicle registration fees? Nope.
You and I, the common workers, are subsidizing the trucking industry. I'd start there first if I honestly wanted to pay for fixing the roads.
Nihil
(13,508 posts)... so justice, equality and all of the other bluster take second place to
political convenience ...
txlibdem
(6,183 posts)I'm losing faith in elections to bring about the end of this theft from the poor/give to the rich society of ours. The end will happen. They've pushed us way too far, now we're awake.