Say NO to Extra EV Taxes in Arizona!
Electric vehicles (EVs) offer big benefits to Arizona, from savings on fuel and maintenance for EV drivers, to cleaner air and improved health for all Arizonans.
Just when the state is attracting new investment and jobs into the state with EV manufacturing from Lucid Motors and Nikola, legislators are trying to slow down this momentum by putting a new tax on EV drivers.
Bills SB1108 and HB2437 both raise taxes on EV owners when the vehicle is registered, far beyond what a dirty gas car driver currently pays for registration. EV drivers in Arizona already pay local electricity taxes and plug-in hybrid EV drivers already pay gas taxes. Arizona legislators should simply not impose any additional tax.
Make your voice heard and say NO to EV taxes!
Someone has to pay for the highways.
Correct. And a higher tax on gasoline would make much more sense at this point. Instead we are subsidizing it. We need to increase the economic incentive to move to EVs, not put barriers in the way.
@n.bruce.nelson I would just be happy if we stopped subsidising the fossil fuel industry. They love to talk about the free and invisible hand ... until its time to protect their own insider clubs. Then it becomes the heavy fist or the back hand. lol
I already did...the Republican leadership in this state are real wacky. But EVs are making some headway here, regardless, with both parties.
Washington State has levied a hefty surcharge to register EVs for some years now. Since I drive some 20k miles per year, it works out to being roughly equivalent to what I would pay in gas tax. For the majority of folks who drive less, it is rather more. I vaguely recall something about the extra going to EV charging infrastructure. Not sure that's credible though.
Mississippi enacted a $150 annual "road tax" on all EVs and a $75 annual "road tax" on all hybrids and electric motorcycles. This is approximately TWICE what the average ICE driver pays in fuel tax at the pump per year in our state - but our state legislature is pretty much owned by the oil companies...
Seems fair to me to charge EVs more for licensing since no money is collected from gas for road tax. Users of the roads should pay for the roads.
What I don't understand is subsidizing people for buying expensive luxury cars just because they are EVs.
Even better if the feds just gave us a rebate, instead of making it a tax credit you don't get if you don't owe that much tax, like I didn't when I bought my Chevy Volt in 2013. Re. road tax: It would be much more fair to charge based on how much you drive. Just read the odometer at registration time.
@Harry Parker Why would the Feds give car buyers money? That would be using taxes paid by citizens to enrich a small portion of the population. The point of a tax credit is that no money changes hands: The government, essentially, doesn't collect a portion of the sales taxes levied on the vehicle. The fact that you and I didn't owe enough taxes when we purchased our vehicles to be offset by the tax credit isn't their fault: My car was eligible for the full tax credit but I was granted only a $750 credit because that's all the taxes I owed that year.
@Harry Parker Giving out odometer readings is perceived by some to be a privacy issue.
It would be MOST equitable to simply drop fuel-based taxes and levy a "road use" tax on all motor vehicles, regardless of their power source.
I agree with @Harry Parker. If this is truly meant to be a road use tax to maintain the roads, then all vehicles can pay the tax during annual vehicle registration. The tax rate can be based on the weight class of the vehicle since heavier vehicles put more wear and tear on the roads and lighter vehicles put less. Assume everyone drives 15k miles per year. If one drives less than 15k, one can provide the odometer reading to get a slight discount each year. Individual choice but the odometer reading is subject to audits every 5 years or so that people don't take advantage of the system. It doesn't matter if the vehicle has 2 wheels, 3 wheels, 4 wheels or 18 wheels. It doesn't matter if the vehicle is ICE (gasoline, diesel, natural gas, propane), hybrid electric, battery electric or fuel cell electric.