Illinois looking to put a hurting on hybrids/EVs
 

Have you guys seen this? If it's already been posted, please delete.

Lawmaker proposes taxing Illinois drivers by the mile | abc7chicago.com

The idea is that hybrids and EVs aren't contributing to road maintenance because the money for it is built into the gas tax. Law proposed to tax 1.5 cents per mile or yearly flat tax of $450. Some sort of rebate makes it balance out for regular car drivers who would be taxed at the pump and on the road supposedly.

GVW x miles. All the way. Never forget GVW; that's what actually puts the hurting on roads.

But whatever system they put in place for verifying odometer readings every year will be more expensive than the system's worth.

If you are using the roads, you should help pay for them. So, the logic is sound...

but this is a really poor way to implement it.

Who are we to be so arrogant as to threaten the bloated bureaucracies revenue stream.

regards
mech

Pay for road use sounds to me like micromanagement - the kind that kills freedom.

People don't go out on the road for the pleasure of using the road. They want to reach a destination.
If the road network is efficient and plentiful they reach it with ease.
If the road network is inefficient they spend more time and miles.
This by mile taxing system would reward inefficiency of the road system.
Making shortcuts would reduce state income.

Freedom? In the U.S.A.? What a quaint, outdated notion.

Problem is they wont replace the old system with the new and improved one.
It will just be in addition to what they already have and pay.

If the government sees you saving too much money on something like fuel they are not going to let you keep it, nooooo that is not how it works.

Don't forget the additional tax, that taxes the tax that was taxed .

Just try to list every tax you pay, including those that are disguised as fees and other terms.

regards
mech

This is also what happens with toll lanes like on the 405 around Seattle. Now the government actually has an incentive to make traffic more congested as the toll varies based on how much time it saves you. The more congested the regular lanes, the higher the toll and the the more pure profit for government to waste on something else. Those lanes were mainly converted carpool lanes which did more to ease traffic then special lanes full of BMWs, Mercedes, and Lexus ever will. Some new lanes were built but mainly "merging" lanes which also just make it worse with extra lane changing and on top of it all everything was paid for from existing gas taxes paid for by the folks in the even more congested working class lanes.

And coming to you soon....the bicycle tax per mile.:D
Haven't really heard of one yet, but somebody has to pay for all those white stripes.:(

JJ

If you use the road you should have to help pay for the road.

I agree with you guys that everyone should have to pay their share for use of the road. But I though that was why we have toll roads; if you want to use this section of road, it will cost you X dollars. If EVs are that big of a problem for Illinois, isn't there a way to tax the energy coming from the public or private charging stations? I presume when you charge at home it comes through a controller of some sort that could monitor usage and be charged/taxed differently than the residence. Of course that method ONLY applies to EVs and doesn't shaft all the driver's, lining more pockets with middle class' money. Best way to make the most money is still tax everyone I guess.

The point is that roads are a necessity. You cannot have a working society without them.
Supplies to the shops. Employees to their companies. Your mail.
Everyone benefits by an efficient road system; even those who don't use it themselves.

So, what will you tax? Road usage, or road benefit?

It may seem logical to lay the cost at the users, but it isn't with other institutions like care for the elderly, the penitentiary system, the army, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_t..._United_States

Lets see they tax gasoline so they can maintain the roads, also tax cars, repair parts, licenses, registration, tires have an additional tax and another fee added for disposal, even though you can build houses out of worn out tires. Don't forget vehicle property taxes, city-county tags, road tolls, business taxes and licenses for those who fix cars, drivers license fees.

So now that we drive using very little fuel they now need to add more taxes just in case we use electricity, which has it's own taxes, fees, line connection fee-tax, surcharges, etc.

I'm absolutely sure I missed something.

regards
mech

The day they tax bicycles for road use is the day the knobbies go back on the MTB and I rip through everyone's yard.

What pot does the road construction and repair money come from? Not the check I write to my town clerk every year, and not any sales tax on brake pads. Toll money doesn't usually get too far from the road charging the toll.

I'm a big fan of raising the gas tax, but as plug-ins start getting out there we do need to look at other ways- and taxing car specific electricity isn't going to work at all.

Since when do users have to be the ones to pay for it?

Do I use pro sports stadiums? No. Do I pay for them? Yes.

Do parents pay for schools? No. Do property owners? Yes.

Hmmmmm

When are they going to start taxing the air you breathe?

Well unlike stadiums, everyone benefits from the roads in one way or another as RedDevil pointed out. I'd be more ok with being taxed if I actually saw the money being used toward something. People buy gas all day, every day and yet the roads around me keep getting sh!ttier every year. Adding another tax for the EVs to "pay their share" annoys me becuase we all know the money is just gong to be wasted.

I would be more amenable to this proposal if I knew the money wouldn't go straight to the state's general fund, as the gasoline sales tax (different from motor fuel tax) and local gas taxes already do.

But it doesn't matter for now--if by some miracle this managed to pass in the legislature, it would face swift and certain veto by our current governor.

Gasoline taxes account for 15% of highway spending in Illinois, according to the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

I like the miles x GVW idea. It really is the fairest way to do it.

I knew this topic would come up as soon as the % of vehicles on the road that use little/no dino fuel became enough for the tax accountants to notice.

I also think that tolls are the worst possible form of road use tax. It is a horribly inefficient way to collect taxes and it mucks up traffic in a number of ways. It basically is a form of extortion. Government looks at certain things like tunnels and bridges where it knows you have no other option and it hammers you. The GWB, no not the recent president, is a good example. NY and NJ know you have no other way of crossing the Hudson, so they hammer you with a 13 dollar (last I checked, may be more) toll, on a bridge built close to 80 years ago. I suspect that the bonds are paid by now. Every other road/bridge around cost money to build/maintain, but, you have options, so they are free.

All of this makes absolutely no sense. Paying for infrastructure should not be dictated by how good of an extortion racket a particular road is.

I am generally very libertarian and believe that things should be handled at the lowest level of government possible, but there are cases involving paying for roads where a federal program makes sense. Take the highways going through NY and NJ. You have a ton of traffic going through that is from other states. Were there no tolls, these folks would be essentially getting a free ride. But as I said, tolls suck. So, why not have a modest fed tax that everyone pays which would be distributed by state based on that states interstate highway volume. NJ would get a lot. as the NJTPK is used by anyone needing to get anywhere in the northeast. A state like MN would get little as there aren't many people using their roads who are just passing through.

That would be likely to increase the demand for efficiency instead of the bragging rights usually associated with the trucks you see hauling air or pulling a ghost trailer :D

I think I paid about $82.50 for the hybrid tax in Idaho this year at registration.