Road use tax for EVs?

Packard said:
In the early 1970s, I worked for a Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) based company.  I was a salesman covering New England, New York and New Jersey.  I lived in New York.

Pennsylvania had annual inspection requirements back then (and maybe now too).  But I would only visit the headquarters at Christmas time and at Easter time.  At Easter my inspection expired each year. 

So each Easter, when I drove to the home office, I would get stopped and I would get a ticket.  Not a problem.  I simply handed the ticket to our bookkeeper who would send them a check. 

I was driving about 60,000 mile per year back then.

My point is, it is not always going to be easy to get the mileage logged that way.  I think it is possible for a gas pump or EV station to check the mileage since the last refueling and add the appropriate tax to the invoice. 

But for travelers like me, the taxes would be applied to the wrong state in many cases.  On Sunday evenings I would always make sure that I had a full tank of gas for the Monday trip, where I would quickly transfer to New Jersey or Connecticut en route to New England.

So New York would collect a disproportionate amount of tax monies from me that rightly should be going to Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, etc.

This is not going to be as easy as it might seem if you are trying to be equitable.  Of course politicians are not particularly worried about unfairness.  They just want you to “Show me the money”.
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I travel often to the Chicago suburbs.  Gas prices often change as soon as I cross the Big Muddy.  The number of times I've intentionally paid for gas in IL instead of IA over the last 5 years can be counted on one hand.

GPS tracking for road use taxes won't fly in the United States, except perhaps on over-the-road semis with electronic logbooks.  I don't know enough about any other country's proclivities to know whether it would fly for them, or if it's even necessary. 

Most of my other thoughts on the topic amount to little more than the rantings of a semi-unhinged lunatic and/or border too close to political to be worth posting.
 
The thing is, GPS tracking shouldn't be necessary --- one has to have a vehicle inspected at least annually, it's already illegal to manipulate an odometer, so apply a Federal road use tax at that point --- if the tax-payer wants to argue that a significant percentage of the usage was not on public roads it is on them to prove it, but folks who are willing to just pay don't have any intrusive monitoring mandated.
 
WillAdams said:
The thing is, GPS tracking shouldn't be necessary --- one has to have a vehicle inspected at least annually, it's already illegal to manipulate an odometer, so apply a Federal road use tax at that point --- if the tax-payer wants to argue that a significant percentage of the usage was not on public roads it is on them to prove it, but folks who are willing to just pay don't have any intrusive monitoring mandated.
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See my previous post.  I haven't had a single vehicle I own inspected by a government entity in over 20 years.
 
Obviously for this to work there will be a need for a Federal inspection program.

Obviously, to satisfy states-rights advocates there would need to be a program it would be possible for states to have a licensing scheme for in-state vehicle usage which would allow them to manage the funding.

Whether or no such vehicles would be allowed to use the roads of other states or Federal highways is something for the legislatures to work out.

Or, as I suggested earlier, just make it a Federal sales tax on tires which is phased in.
 
WillAdams said:
The thing is, GPS tracking shouldn't be necessary --- one has to have a vehicle inspected at least annually, it's already illegal to manipulate an odometer, so apply a Federal road use tax at that point --- if the tax-payer wants to argue that a significant percentage of the usage was not on public roads it is on them to prove it, but folks who are willing to just pay don't have any intrusive monitoring mandated.
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In California the only periodic state auto inspection is for emissions testing.    EVs, of course, don't have to do that.

Bob
 
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