Posted on 06/10/2013 6:25:54 AM PDT by rktman
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina is joining a growing number of states exploring new fees for hybrid and electric car owners to help make up for revenue those drivers aren’t paying in gas taxes on their fuel-efficient vehicles.
(Excerpt) Read more at fuelfix.com ...
Tax tires, because tire wear is directly proportional to road use. Problem solved.
Tires are taxed - and min many states, multiple times...
You have sales taxes (which are at least the prevailing tax rate)
You have a used tire disposal fee charged when you get new tires (supposedly for the old tires you are getting rid of, even though they will just be sold either as used tires, or recycled into a variety of materials that will actually MAKE someone money - but the sate requires the fee...).
How about sales tax on tires not go into the “general” fund, but be specifically channeled to the highway/road funds.
I bet more than a few owners of the hybrids will be in for a real “shock” when it comes time to replace the battery in their earth saving vehicle.
I am one of those foolish capitalists - who believes that the free market should take care of all this. The government has absolutely NO business paying people to buy these cars. If people buy them, it should be on their own merits and the consumer’s view on the value they receive.
Let the enviro-nazis pay the REAL cost of those ecco-nut cars. See how committed they really are to their supposed cause.
Tax tires, because tire wear is directly proportional to road use. Problem solved.
Oops, I just realized that suddenly wheel alignment would be paramount. I only got 20k miles out of my last set of front tires on my Chrysler because it was so out of alignment.
Sure. And keeping your tires properly inflated would be a good idea too, and not speeding through tight turns, and never barking a tire on take-off.
I don't see these as objections, however. I like having ways to minimize my taxes.
Don’t forget the coal it burns to create the electric to the charging station.
We are on the same page.
I don’t see these as objections, however. I like having ways to minimize my taxes.
I’d love to see welfare meted out as follows: Every citizen gets two years of welfare, but that’s it. You can use it at any time, even if you are fully employed at the time, but once your two years worth are used up, yer gonna have to depend on the charity of individual citizens, churches, etc. or die on the street, so use it wisely.
Sure. And keeping your tires properly inflated would be a good idea too, and not speeding through tight turns, and never barking a tire on take-off.
I think all cars would probably require wheel locks too. Imagine the tax on each tire for 30-40K of road use. I suspect that a fairly new tire would be worth well over a thousand dollars in saved tax revenue.
“I bet more than a few owners of the hybrids will be in for a real “shock” when it comes time to replace the battery in their earth saving vehicle.”
Out here on the left coast, many Pius owners sell their tax supported Piuses before their batteries need to be replaced.
My wife have noticed that the lefty Pius owners are as evasive about the real cost of their Pius batteries as they are about what their IPhones really cost each month.
“I’d love to see welfare meted out as follows: Every citizen gets two years of welfare, but that’s it. You can use it at any time, even if you are fully employed at the time, but once your two years worth are used up, yer gonna have to depend on the charity of individual citizens, churches, etc. or die on the street, so use it wisely.”
A good plan, but restrict the 2 years maximum use to a maximum time of 6 months for each welfare session. Then, they have to wait 10 years before they get the next 6 months.
So they get 24 months divided over 40 years.
Also, If they go off welfare in 2 months, they would have 22 months life time left or whatever the math would work out to be.
In all fairness part of the gas taxes are supposed to be for road maintenance, so if you drive a electric car and pay no fuel taxes you are by default not paying your share of road maintenance. Is anyone going to cry for these car owners? Not Me.
Most hybrids don’t get better gas mileage than the best non-hybrids; some people for example buy a hybrid pickup truck. It does better than a regular pickup truck, but most sedans use less gas.
So why not charge people based on the EPA mileage figures for their cars, instead of targeting a particular class of vehicles?
Virginia just did this, to help pay for roads. They should just charge people based on odometer readings.
I see you're still not done futzin around with the interesting plays on words. (grin) I wondered how you'd handle the plural of "Pius" owners. Too funny fer words!!! (and really amping up the humor)
“Why did you drive so many miles compared to last year? And where did you go and what was the purpose of the trip?” “Can you justify these additional miles which caused you to emit more CO2 than your permit allows?”
Do you remember when the states gave subsidies to people who drove big cars, because it wasn’t fair that they had low gas mileage and were therefore paying a lot more in gas tax?
nope, I don’t either. “fairness” is really just about the state being able to target a minority for a tax increase, so they can say the “average” person didn’t get a tax increase, defining “average” as “median”.
BTW, ignoring electric vehicles, which clearly pay NO gas tax, here is a list of some of the most fuel efficient cars, by class:
2-seater: Honda CR-Z
mini-compact: Scion iQ
subcompact: Chevrolet Spark
compact: Toyota Prius c Hybrid
midsize: Toyota Prius Hybrid
Large: Ford C-MAX Hybrid FWD
small wagon: Audi A3
small wagon: Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen
midsize wagon: Toyota Prius v
Only 4 of the 9 cars were hybrids. So taxing “hybrids” more because they pay less in gas tax isn’t “fair”, since in many cases regular cars are getting better gas mileage and paying less in gas tax.
Meanwhile, these taxes they add are fixed amounts yearly, which means the guy who owns a hybrid but rarely drives it will pay a lot more for the roads than they get out of the roads.
I don’t like the idea, but it would be fairer than using the gas tax. I don’t care that the gas tax is not fair, since up until now, you could make choices that might raise or lower the tax you paid. Now they are targeting a subclass of those choices for punishment.
I always object to taxes that are applied unfairly to targeted populations, because the majority loves to tax the minority. Everybody should suffer equally the costs of our government. When the majority can collect the money for government from a minority, they won’t care how much government costs.
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