This past month the State Senate and House have been debating the Governors proposal to remove the gas tax and attain the equivalent amount of revenue for transportation from General Funds sales tax increases as well as charging a fee to hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles of $100 per year. Many people don’t understand what the gas tax is, and effectively how much they pay annually for it.
On average Americans drive 12,000 miles per year. At 17.5 cents per gallon (the current gas tax) the average resident of Virginia pays between $210 per year for a Hummer which gets 10 miles per gallon to $52.50 per year for fuel efficient sedans and typical hybrids. The typical 22 mile per gallon vehicle (national average) pays approximately $100 per year.
If the proposed $100 fee was imposed on the current gas tax, electric vehicles would now be paying what the average resident pays in gas tax annually ($100) and Hybrids would pay $152.50 per year, equivalent to the gas tax paid by a car getting 13 miles per gallon.
Honk! Honk! If you think that’s a rip off.
Now let’s look at the proposal that is supposedly a compromise coming from a “bipartisan committee” of 8 republicans and 2 democrats which retains the $100 fee and changes the gas tax to be 3.5% of whole sale (approximately 12 cents given current historically high prices). The average resident of Virginia would now pay $144 per year for a Hummer and $36 for fuel efficient sedans that attain 40 miles per gallon. The typical 22 mile per gallon vehicle would now pay approximately $65 per year.
If the proposed $100 fee was imposed on this tax, Electric Vehicles would now be paying the equivalent of a vehicle which attains only 14 miles per gallon ($100) and a hybrid vehicle would now be paying a whopping $140 per year or approximately the same as the Hummer driver at 10 miles per gallon.
Let me say this again, the Hummer driver, whose vehicle weighs 3 times more than the Hybrid, imparts 96 (3^4) times more damage and maintenance needs on the road, but will pay the same as that Hybrid.
That isn’t a sustainable solution for transportation, that is a tax break for people who irresponsibly use fuel. Good for them if they want to have a car that uses more gas, it is after all a free country, but that doesn’t mean I need to help them pay for that lifestyle. Ultimately those users are causing far more damage on the roads.
You see this is another way of Richmond hurting NOVA. You are 5 times more likely to own an alternative fuel vehicle or hybrid in NOVA than in other parts of Virginia. If you live inside the beltway you also get screwed because you drive far less than 12,000 miles per year and pay more of your sales tax on items that have nothing to do with transportation. Now that will go towards giving hummer drivers a tax break.
And if you live in an inner suburb and own a hybrid?
You are getting double taxed on top of the additional sales tax being taken from you, all so that more Coalfields Expressways, more 460 bypasses, and more highways to nowhere are built in the rest of Virginia.
That isn’t a transportation plan, that’s a medal for Bob McDonnell to wear in 2016.