Texas Lege is trying to punish EV owners.

[Liberal In Texas]

Why am I not surprised that instead of encouraging EV ownership with more incentives, they want to impose punitive taxes on them:

About 29% of the money that pays for road building and repairs in Texas comes from the gas tax — which, of course, EV owners don't pay.

The DMV put forward a study suggesting roughly $100 would more than cover EV owners’ fair share of the state’s road responsibilities: “If the objective is to replace the average amount of state motor fuel tax that an equivalent conventional vehicle pays, the amount is estimated to be about $100 a year for an electric vehicle” (p. 6).

The legislature, in turn, ignored the study it commissioned. The Senate passed a $200 EV tax instead, which died in the House in the waning days of the last session. So legislators are back at it — the Senate passed the $200 tax again just this week. An identical bill (HB 2199) will be heard in the House Committee on Transportation on Wednesday.

To be clear, drivers of trucks that get ~20 miles per gallon (mpg) end up paying about $108 per year in state gas taxes, according to Texas Transportation Institute (TTI). Sedans pay, according to the DMV, $63.27 a year.
Texas leaders apparently think EV drivers — regardless of what model they drive — should be taxed at twice the highest rate in Texas and should pay more than three times the tax paid by drivers of conventional cars.
To make a lousy deal even worse, EV owners will have to pay two years of taxes all at once with their vehicle registration...an extra $400 tax bill to pay at the time of purchase.

Frankly, this whole idea of a flat tax isn't fair anyway. It doesn't take into account the weight of the vehicle or the miles driven. For example, the 2019 PHEV I bought in 2018 just got to 12,000 miles. Due to being retired at this point and the pandemic, I don't drive as much. Also the vehicle is a small SUV or a crossover and probably doesn't weigh has much as a Expedition or one of those huge pickups with dual rear wheels. And don't get me started on how this proposal is backward thinking in trying to clean up the dirty air in Texas.

Taxing by miles drive would be easy to determine because every year we have to have a state inspection that is electronically reported to the state. The odometer readings could be used to determine the license fee due annually.

More at: https://douglewin.substack.com/p/texas-legislature-moves-to-raise


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[634-5789]

1. Here in Illinois...

We have a Chevy Bolt EV, and pay $100 more because there's no gas pump taxes. I understand that the roads must be maintained, so I'm not squealing, and I cannot wait until I have my own EV. Every State will have to deal with the EV's that are coming.

[zipplewrath]

2. Exactly

Gas taxes, as regressive as they are, were how many states paid to maintain their roads. EV's of course are avoiding those and some method of rectifying this is necessary and appropriate. But the reality is exactly what this action in Illinois exposes. EV's should be taxed in some appropriate way that gas consuming vehicles are. Instead, it appears that states are using this opportunity to raise revenues now, before EV's become vastly more common. In 10 years it will be "this is what we've always taxed EV's to pay for roads and bridges".

[jimfields33]

3. I don't mind this at all. Electric cars use roads too.

100 or two hundred is just noise that will be figured out.

[Liberal In Texas]

4. Yes, EV use roads too. But why shouldn't the tax be fair?

Tax miles driven and weight. End state tax on gasoline.

There. Figured out.

[jimfields33]

5. I think some would complain about the tracking part.

They’d have to add a device on your car. No way will they allow honesty to self report.

[Liberal In Texas]

6. Everyone has a device on their car. It's called an odometer.

And as explained above, the once a year, currently mandated to get a car licensed state inspection, notes the milage. No need to self report.

[jimfields33]

7. Ok. Maybe that'd work.

They will have to hire more staff for states without inspections.

[Liberal In Texas]

10. There are states without annual safety inspections?

Who knew?

In Texas they're done at repair shops and gas station mechanics who are certified to do them.

[jimfields33]

12. Florida has no inspection whatsoever

[Liberal In Texas]

13. OK. This thread is about the Texas lege.

I'll leave the rest of the country and it's idiosyncrasies to others.

[jimfields33]

14. Lol. True.

[Thunderbeast]

8. A weight-mile tax is ultimately the most fair

A problem is how to fairly parse out a state tax for cars that regularly cross state lines. How, for example, does Washington state capture revenues for the significant number of miles driven there on my Oregon registered EV? Would the reciprocity balance the books between the states?

GPS tracking has been proposed, but I doubt that the citizenry is ready for THAT level of surveillance. Transponders and tolling present similar problems.

Currently, the issue has helped make EVs a battlefront in the culture wars. Social media is full of lies about safety, fires, grid pressures, and all manner of electron-driven catastrophe. The new gas stove battle is an adjacent kerfuffle.

[Liberal In Texas]

11. Currently, one can drive through a state on a a regular basis with an ICE car and not buy any gas.

I used to do this on a regular basis driving through Oklahoma. Never bought a drop of gas until I got to a service area in Kansas.

And in Kansas, that's where I picked up the toll road and not only did I pay their gas tax, I had to pay a toll.

I'm not recommending toll roads, but states could make reciprocal agreements about use of roads they have to maintain. Typically though, like I used to do, I was driving through Oklahoma on the Interstate. I think the funding for maintenance is different (federal?) than for local streets and roads.

[walkingman]

9. Stop the gas tax or stop state subsidies to fossil fuel companies.

For 2020, the State of Texas subsided oil and gas $1.8 billion ($170 per household). This for one of the profitable industries on the planet. How about using the EV's as an incentive to support clean air and water and to fight the real danger of Climate Change - wouldn't that be a novel idea?

[Yellowdog-1966]

15. I always wonder about Jetsons flying cars

Big oil will never allow futuristic hoovering cars because they won't make any money.

[DUar17]

16. Just a thought... just get rid of the "gas tax" and tax everyone equally.

I wouldn't mind seeing $1.50? gallon at the gas stations again.