This relates to the previous post.
As more people use electric cars, fewer people will purchase gasoline, and less money will be collected by the state for highway construction and repair. They will still drive on highways though, so how can they be made to pay into the state highway fund?
Just charge them a flat fee every year.
Relevant terms:
- state lawmakers
- Senate Bill 505
- vehicle registration
- Texas agencies
- federal and state gasoline tax dollars
- State Highway Fund
- Texas Department of Transportation
- environmental and consumer advocates
- Environment Texas
- Texas Electric Transportation Resources Alliance
- Public Citizen’s Texas
- roads and bridges
- Click here for the article.
Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 505, which requires electric vehicle owners to pay the fee when they register a vehicle or renew their registration. It’s being imposed because lawmakers said EV drivers weren’t paying their fair share into a fund that helps cover road construction and repairs across Texas.
The cost will be especially high for those who purchase a new electric vehicle and have to pay two years of registration, or $400, up front.
Texas agencies estimated in a 2020 report that the state lost an average of $200 per year in federal and state gasoline tax dollars when an electric vehicle replaced a gas-fueled one. The agencies called the fee “the most straightforward” remedy.
Gasoline taxes go to the State Highway Fund, which the Texas Department of Transportation calls its “primary funding source.” Electric vehicle drivers don’t pay those taxes, though, because they don’t use gasoline.
Still, EV drivers do use the roads. And while electric vehicles make up a tiny portion of cars in Texas for now, that fraction is expected to increase.
Many environmental and consumer advocates agreed with lawmakers that EV drivers should pay into the highway fund but argued over how much.
Some thought the state should set the fee lower to cover only the lost state tax dollars, rather than both the state and federal money, because federal officials may devise their own scheme. Others argued the state should charge nothing because EVs help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change.
