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CO, Nebraska, Virgina, and Washington also have such fees. The issue is basically that gasoline and diesel consumption was used as a proxy for travel miles in

• bane 13y ago
  > The issue is basically that gasoline and diesel consumption was used as a proxy for travel miles in order to pay for road maintenance and the scale used to relate miles to gallons is no longer accurate even for gas-powered cars That's very interesting. Is it possible that this could be part of the cause of the noticeably deteriorating state of roads these days?
  • GFK_of_xmaspast 13y ago
    Yes I'm sure the literally dozens of electric cars not paying gas tax in North Carolina are responsible for the shitty roads.
    • maxerickson 13y ago
      The question is clearly enough about gas and diesel vehicles.
    • stefan_kendall 13y ago
      Your scale is way off. I see electric cars everywhere.
  • thrownaway2424 13y ago
    Of course it is. The gas tax (federal anyway) hasn't gone up even in nominal terms since 1993, even though CPI has gone up 61% since then and the real-dollar price of gas has tripled. Since the government's cut of fuel price has been shrinking for 20 years, so has the fund available for fixing roads.
• pktgen 13y ago
  Why do taxes have to be spread out everywhere? Why not just have an income tax and sales tax, or maybe only one (I've heard arguments for both sides, but don't want to get into that debate) to cover all this? It's the same thing with all the ridiculous fees governments charge for various things. For example, registering a vehicle at the DMV. Why does this cost anything? After all, your taxes already pay the salary of the person at the DMV, their office, etc. and the sales tax (in states that have it) paid on a vehicle purchase should take into account that the new owner will need to register it. It's just a ridiculous way of "not really increasing" taxes.
  • johnpmayer 13y ago
    Two reasons. The first, to which you allude, is that those who make the rules are trying to stay in their jobs. It's a symptom of democracy. The second is that these are all knobs one can turn to fine-tune incentives of behaviors; cost complexity isn't inherently bad.
  • URSpider94 13y ago
    One answer is that there is a philosophy that fees or taxes should only be levied on people who use them. Automobile ownership is a discretionary act that is already highly subsidized, so the government feels justified in levying specific fees against car owners. Another answer is that user fees are politically expedient, as you point out -- it's a way to increase government revenue without increasing taxes per se. In any case, if you buy a car, the DMV fees ARE generally rolled into the purchase, though as a separate item. Not to be too pedantic, but you can always buy a vehicle and not register it -- for example, if you are from out of state and plan to register it in your home state, or if you need to do some work on it before you put it on the road.
    • jamesaguilar 13y ago
      Still a third answer: unwanted behavior is sometimes taxed to deter it.
  • mikeash 13y ago
    People who use roads should pay for them, varying roughly according to how much they use them. This will ensure that the roads are used in the most efficient manner possible. Basic economics. Since it's not really practical to directly charge for road use (with the occasional toll road as an exception), taxes can serve as a decent substitute. Given that, it's good to line up the taxes with use.
• kstrauser 13y ago
  It's still ludicrous. I'm not a civil engineer, but I was discussing this with my friends who are. In summary, the amount of damage that a vehicle does to a road is proportional to the fourth power of its weight. A Nissan Leaf weighs 3,291 pounds (source: http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/versions-specs/ http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/versions-specs/). A GMC Yukon Denali weighs 5,491 pounds (source: http://www.gmc.com/yukon-denali-luxury-suv/features-specs/capabilities.html http://www.gmc.com/yukon-denali-luxury-suv/features-specs/ca...), or 1.67 times more. It should do approximately 7.75 more damage to the roads it drives over than the Leaf will. At an average of 15,000 per year, the Yukon owner getting 16 mpg (source: average of 14mpg city and 18mpg highway from http://www.gmc.com/yukon-denali-luxury-suv/features-specs/powertrain.html http://www.gmc.com/yukon-denali-luxury-suv/features-specs/po...) will burn about 950 gallons of gas per year. At $0.563 per gallon tax (source: combined state and federal taxes from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States), that owner will pay about $550 per year in taxes. If NC is being honest about their reasons for taxing electric vehicle owners, then the Yukon owner is being subsidized about $225 a year (should pay: $775, will pay: $550) for driving a more polluting, more damaging vehicle. That's assuming that electricity is completely untaxed in NC so that the Leaf driver is paying only that $100 tax. TL;DR This isn't about fundraising. It's about protecting gas-burning vehicle markets.
  • maxerickson 13y ago
    Roughly 0 people that are presently considering an electric car are concerned about $100 a year.
    • sgustard 13y ago
      They might care because (1) a $100 tax can quickly grow to several times that, and (2) it's a slap in the face for doing the right thing.
      • maxerickson 13y ago
        So do you think it is going to stop a lot of people from buying electric cars or are you just being picky? Because I meant that it probably wasn't really going to stop very many people from buying electric cars (so it is then strange to assume it is about protecting the market for ICE cars).
• revelation 13y ago
  Taxes rarely make sense in the way you describe, and whoever came up with the 100 bucks number.. well rest assured, he didn't really have this in mind.