The state has joined the growing number who are hitting EVs up for the lost gas tax revenue
Pa.’s electric vehicle owners soon will have to pay fees of $200+ per year
A bill that would establish a new annual fee for owners of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to offset the loss of gas tax revenue on those vehicles is headed to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk.
The new fee, which Shapiro is expected to enact, is seen as a way to re-level that part of the highway construction funding effort that has traditionally fallen on drivers paying state and federal taxes at the gas pump. EV drivers avoid that tax.
“Everyone who uses Pennsylvania roads should have to pay their part to help keep our roads safe and our bridges in top shape,” House Transportation Committee Chairman Ed Neilson, a Democrat from Philadelphia, said Wednesday.
The new fees, which passed the state Senate on an overwhelming bipartisan vote Thursday, would be set at $200 for 2025, and jump to $250 in 2026. Every year after that, the fee would be reset based on the prior year’s consumer price index.
In North Carolina it is just under $40 to register my Civic. Any EV is now $180. In fairness, they’ll still save money on gas, but, of course, they’re still paying for electricity, plus the use of their time while waiting to charge.
One of those opponents, Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware County, argued the fee undermines one of the savings that helps encourage people to consider buying electric cars and trucks at a time when the battle against climate change needs more recruits faster than ever.
Gas tax savings, Vitali said, are a reward that they’ve earned.
Ah, but, then how do we pay for roads and road repair? That’s what gas taxes are supposed to be for, along with things like property taxes and registration fees. EVs are considerably worse for roads due to their weight, wearing roads out quicker. We’ve seen this before, when the Obama regimes drastically increased CAFE standards, meaning there were more hybrids on the road and vehicles were getting better fuel economy, but, that mean a reduced revenue intake from gas taxes. So, governments had to get creative to recoup that “loss”. Government created fix created a government created problem that required sucking more money from citizens.
At least when I left, Pennsylvania’s roads were in sorry shape, with one major exception: the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which has very high tolls, was always in great shape!
The fuel tax has always been an easy way to collect money for road building and maintenance, because it is imposed at the point of sale, and the administrative costs are borne by the retailers, not the Commonwealth. It’s no wonder governments like it.
In the Keystone State, there are three separate tax rates for diesel fuel. A low tax rate is imposed on home heating oil, and a higher rate on diesel fuel for off-road equipment, such as the front-end loader I had at the plant. Then there’s the full tax rate diesel imposed on over-the-road equipment. I did know one guy who had an extra diesel tank in the back of his truck for home heating oil, that he used for fuel in his diesel-engined pickup, but he kept over the road fuel in his original tank, in case he was stopped by the police; the different grades of diesel are separately dyed, so that law enforcement could visually determine what grade of diesel was in the tank.
For decades, the Pennsylvania state government raided the fuel tax revenues for other things, and road maintenance fell far behind. The Keystone State had been playing catch-up when I left.
EV’s should pay their share of road use fees. The gas tax has been used for decades to fund construction and maintenance of most roads, urban streets are often funded from differing sources. The overall funding mechanism of roads varies from state to state and you can observe which states do a better job with the funds by the general condition of roads. Generally large urban areas divert an excess amount of road/street maintenance monies to things like transit and it shows in the condition of their streets. Without getting into the weeds, all infrastructure has a limited life span and requires maintenance and refurbishment.
I doubt that EV’s cause much excessive wear on streets and I would doubt that a significant study has been done. However, heavier vehicles do cause more wear. The worst offender that I am aware of is the urban transit bus, usually only 2 axles and at or over the axle load for a road vehicle when loaded.
I’ve been retired for too long to have any current data available.