What a joke.

 

In as bad of financial shape Illinois is in, I'm surprised they offer EV plates at $30 for two years, vs about $102/year for regular cars.

But then they did kill off their $4000 EV cash rebate program two years ago.

 

We have been begging and pleading for years, even decades, for our State of Michigan lawmakers to do something about the piss poor quality of our roads. This is a small price to pay for a direct infusion of $$ into repaving roads and rebuilding bridges.

 

Midland county passed a property tax mileage to fix the roads at a quicker pace, and it's actually getting done. Suggest trying local action.

 

Washington is worse. They just nicked me an additional $150 EV fee for my Volt. The wording of the new law is "any vehicle that can travel over 30 miles, over 35 mph, and be plugged in. How many hybrid cars can travel over 30 miles on electricity? Exactly one!

 

Washington is the strange one. Washington is supposed to be a green state so it's surprising that they are taxing EVs this early in their life cycle. Michigan I can understand. EVs are really bad for employment in Michigan. The auto companies build engines and transmissions in MI, they don't build motors or batteries. GM gets their motors and batteries from LG. It's highly unlikely that they will ever build motors and batteries themselves so those engine and transmission jobs are going to go away.

 

Renwed MI registration early

I renewed the registration for my 2013 Volt last night even though it doesn't expire until February 2017. Figured it saved me the 20% increase in the registration ($30) + $30 hybrid tax, so $60 savings by renewing early.

 

My recommendation:

Set a floor on the price of gasoline, where it is today. If oil prices fall, automatically impose a tax on gas to keep the prices at their current level OR HIGHER.

After perhaps three years (or five, whatever), start imposing additional gasoline tax, perhaps 20 cents/gallon each year. This will give people plenty of opportunity to switch out of their gas burning cars

The additional funds generated will

Vastly exceed the amount that can be taken from EV drivers, and more importantly
Drive people away from gas cars

Eventually, there will be so little gas sold that taxes will need to be applied to EVs, but this will take many years. In the meanwhile, gas consumption will drop in much the same way that tobacco consumption has faded away

 

I agree maybe that would finally deter people from buying Ford 350 quad cab diesel 4X4 trucks to drive five miles to work in and give people with the eco cars the break. In many other countries, gas is kept high and the result is that most people have eco vehicles or use alternate forms of transportation (public, bicycle, etc.).

 

Voters are OK selectively punishing EV owners, but would riot if the gas tax was raised. Why not just charge everyone a flat annual gas tax as part of the license fee? Or charge a tax based on miles driven, even more fair.

 

Because to a large extent, wear on roads is proportional to use. And since there is a proportional mechanism handy, it's usable. Another alternative would be an annual mileage reading that (multiplied by weight of vehicle) determine part of the registration charge. But that's a LOT easier to cheat if done cheaply and expensive (need state inspection stations) if not.

 

I get charging an EV surcharge. I don't agree with it, but I do understand the logic behind it.

What I don't understand is charging a "gas tax" on an EV. That simply makes no sense any way you look at it. They should at least call it a road tax or something else. Calling it a gas tax just makes them look like morons.

 

Georgia has added an "EV Tax" also, paid when tags are renewed. I haven't been hit yet, but will be in February when I renew. I don't know for certain, but I've heard it will be $200.

 

In Michigan the gasoline tax is going up by some small amount, which of course is the major revenue increase to be directed at road repairs. The EV tax is simply an equalizer to give some fairness to the arguments about getting a free ride on road costs. The actual amount of increase in gas tax is about 30% of what's actually needed. Also the totally partisan and unfair methods for revenue distribution pit community against community as the wealthiest areas also generate road construction revenue through property tax ballot proposals. Portage Michigan home of Pfizer, Stryker, and some other large manufacturers has roads second to none. Every crack is sealed every bump smoothed out quickly. Next door the county center Kalamazoo home of not taxed WMU, K College several big church's etc, which are tax free....has the most despicable horrible streets in the state. It takes weeks of complaints to get a pot hole filled.

 

Switching from gas taxes to tolls is probably the best solution. EZPass has made tolling very easy, the latest version no longer requires cars to slow down so it doesn't interfere with traffic flow anymore and it has elimated toe costs of toll takers. The big advantage of EZPass is that the cost is invisible unlike gas taxes and old fashion tolling. In theory gas taxes were an ideal way of paying for roads in that they were pretty good approximation of weight * distance. The problem with gas taxes is political, it's extremely hard to raise them. As a result gas tax revenue falls way short of meeting the costs of maintaining our roads and bridges. Tolls on the other had are always location based so you can't point to a single toll price which makes it easier to raise them. Also they can perform a secondary function of congestion management, i.e. you can charge more to enter a city during peak times.

 

The problem with gas taxes is political, it's extremely hard to raise them. As a result gas tax revenue falls way short of meeting the costs of maintaining our roads and bridges. Tolls on the other had are always location based so you can't point to a single toll price which makes it easier to raise them. Also they can perform a secondary function of congestion management, i.e. you can charge more to enter a city during peak times.

The problem with congestion pricing is also political. NYC, one of the the places in the US where congestion pricing makes the most sense, attempted to implement a very moderate plan but the NY State legislature took it upon themselves to intervene.

 

Has anyone received their MI 2017 registration renewal notice? Received mine today, $332 in 2017 vs $167 in 2016. Included in that is $15 vanity plate charge.