Bipartisan Support for Ending Virginia Hybrid Fees!

IMO, a "fair tax" with proper incentives, should be made up of 3 components:
1. property portion: based on market value of the car
2. fuel portion: inversely proportional to mpg (low mpg pays more)
3. weight portion: heavier pays more

How the 3 components get proportioned, in an ideal law would be so that it is about revenue neutral.
Heavier vehicles should pay more because they do more road damage.
Higher mpg cars should pay less as an incentive to be efficient, pollute less, etc.
PHEVs might be a bit of a challenge to figure out a good EV ratio...and EVs should pay even less for this portion at least initially. It could be argued that cars that use no gas, thus pay no gas taxes could have this portion increased some years down the road.
And the property portion allows the fairness angle of poorer people with cheaper cars pay less.

Dealers should have to post the details of the tax on each car with the EPA mileage info.

Mike

 

There's ALWAYS a smile on my face when (if) taxes get repealed!


I wish it could happen more often!

 

It is why I kept my old car so long. Buying a new, moderately priced car bumped my tax by a few hundred bucks. I preferred to just spend it on repairs instead of taxes.

I had a column on my car shopping spreadsheet for my county and town tax. It also was one more reason I didn't get a loaded one.

And some people just don't pay the tax. Enforcement seems to be nonexistent even here in Loudoun where there are still decals. A bunch of cars in my neighborhood park outside every night with no sticker and have done so for a year or more. Some that are garaged will never be seen. One guy has a $50k Audi, a $40k truck, and just bought a $30k Fusion. No stickers on any of them.

Another guy that moved had a Mercedes S63 AMG. No tax sticker ever.

Sure they might pay it, but why wouldn't you slap the sticker on to avoid a ticket in the future?

 

Another possible component on which to base tax is the number of miles you drive, not just the MPG. Some states are moving towards paying more for their roads with a mileage charge and lowering the tax per gallon. See green Oregon.

Your government has to maintain the roads otherwise your cost to maintain your car's tires and suspension and your mileage per gallon go up due to the lower quality of the roads and the lower speed you must drive. Not to mention quality of ride. And safety. Even ignoring potholes, groves get worn into roads over time in the tire tracks and collect water. I've seen far to many very serious accidents because of ill maintained roads and stupid drivers with bald tires and NASCAR mentalities driving in the rain on roads with grooves. So we have to maintain. And build new roads to support new housing or industrial developments.

As the price of oil goes up and general inflation too and as MPG goes up, less and less gas tax dollars are going into the road fund and general tax revenues have been subsidizing the road fund in increasing amounts in all states. As the required fleet MPG from the auto manufacturers goes to 55MPG in the not so distant future, where will the road fund dollars come from is the dilemma politicians face. Toll roads? I had my wife in the hospital a few weeks ago and paid $30 in tolls to drive twice a day on a 12 mile stretch of toll road. Imagine commuting costs for a year. But it was the only way to get the road built because the gas tax dollars weren't there and would decrease over time as MPG increases.

Me driving a Prius and you driving a CRV put the same wear on the road surface but I pay less gas tax because I use less. Another situation, I have twice the miles on my Prius as my wife does on her Avalon yet we have paid about the same gas tax $. But I've worn out the road more.

You can't have something for nothing.

So I'm all for some rational tax scheme that includes miles driven as a major component. That will accommodate all forms of fuel and put the burden on those who use the roads more equally.

Interesting article in last week's Economist on this subject.

 

How do you figure that? It makes sense to me that a lighter vehicle, likely with LRR tires and gentler acceleration and braking, would wear the road less than a heavier vehicle. It might not be a huge difference like 50% less wear, but I haven't seen anything to suggest that the wear per mile is the same between two vehicles of different weights.

 

I'd imagine differences in consumer-class weight and [most] tires have a miniscule effect on road wear. (Obviously not counting chains & what not on wheels). For weight to make a difference, you probably need to get up towards the 18-wheeler class. Weather's probably a bigger factor than weight, and that damage can't be attributed to any one vehicle category.

 

The three hundred pounds difference probably would mean little to amount of road wear. Same with the LRR tires and driving style. Those also can't be considered for a road use tax basis, because they aren't fixed to the vehicle. Prius owners have switched to non-LRR tires, and CRV ones can switch to them. Car type isn't a guaranty of driving behavior.