Billion dollar state budget losses: The cost of fuel efficiency
Coming soon to a bridge near you?In just 15 years Washington State could experience a $3.8 billion state budget shortfall because of a decline in gas tax revenues due to hybrid and electric vehicle adoption according to a new report. That means $3.8 billion less to pay for highway projects and to maintain infrastructure, and that's just one state.
Many other states, as well as the federal government, could experience similar shortfalls.
So, how will states and the feds make up this revenue? Higher gas taxes? M&S tax on all plug-in vehicles?
At some point, despite their foreign-oil and environmental friendliness, won't plug-in vehicles have to pay their fair share of costs for highways and infrastructure maintenance?
Labels: gas tax, plug-in hybrid vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
1:01 PM
5 Comments:
Road pricing.
We need a multipart solution:
+ Mileage tax factored by vehicle weight, to cover road maintenance costs
+ Fossil fuel sales tax, to cover environmental damage costs from fossil fuel production, transport, and consumption
+ Tolls - and system development charges on new building construction - to repay capital construction costs
+ Congestion pricing, to maintain efficient operation of the road network
This multipart solution would create a true "user pays" environment that would reward a reduction in VMT regardless of the fuel efficiency of a vehicle, as well as reward people for choosing vehicles that do not use fossil fuels or do so efficiently (unlike most current mileage tax proposals, which claim to be a replacement for a fuel tax). New roadway and bridge/tunnel construction could be built when needed and repaid by those who use it. With congestion pricing the road network stays efficient for those who really need it, including emergency vehicles, freight, and local commercial deliveries.
Read more: http://zetcars.com
Indigo Incarnates
The obvious solution is to key the car registration renewal fees to fuel economy.
40+ MPG: $100/year
30-39 MPG: $200/year
20-29 MPG: $400/year
10-19 MPG: $800/year
Less than 10 MPG: $1,600/year
Of course, the combined mileage would be used, not just the "highway" mileage.
Seems like that would eventually result in the same problem, Indigo.
I think Joesph is onto something and I really like his vehicle weight idea, for instance, even though that could hurt hybrids and EVs. And his fossil fuel tax is very much like your idea, which would help EVs.
However, this idea that is floating around in the public policy arena that EVs get free or cheaper everything is probably flawed despite its good intentions.
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