Colbert Tears Into North Carolina’s Potential EV & Hybrid Tax (VIDEO)
Like no one else can, Colbert brings some attention to the absurdity of taxing EV and hybrid drivers in North Carolina. Check it out in the video below for a little Friday fun.
In all seriousness, our roads and bridges don’t have the funding they need. The gas tax needs to be raised and new revenue sources need to be identified simply to maintain the infrastructure we have.
That said, I certainly don’t think taxes on electric and hybrid vehicles is the way to go. These are critical solutions to our more than critical climate issues. And I think Colbert does an amazing job turning North Carolina’s proposal to tax electric and hybrid vehicles into a huge joke. Check it out (note: the EV & hybrid tax section starts at 2:24 in, but the beginning is hilarious and worth a watch, too):
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Oregon has been proposing some version of this for many years. Here’s just one article on the proposed Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) fee:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/01/oregon-pushing-ahead-road-use-fees/4434/
And don’t get me started on the numbskull legislators who actually proposed taxing bicycles because they allegedly don’t pay their fair share for the roads. Google that one for some thorough debunking of that notion.
Yeah, VMT fees have been researched and debated within the transportation planning field for decades.
Biking… yeah, i didn’t even want to go there. Insane.
Well a tax you pay each year to get you plates. Base on Mile and weight (car/truck not yours). Where the weight factor is non-linear. Your drive a big butt truck you pay like 10 times the cost of a mini. Holland does this. Also, tax semi’s a lot higher they do a lot more damage. So you have a car and only go 5 mile round trip on Sundays to Church, don’t cost you much. You driving the Hummer 100k a year, boy you best bring a certified check. And yes the gas tax has to go up, at least double. Every time I hear someone bitch about the state of the roads and their gas tax; then have the nerve to say how good Germany roads are. I want to …
Very much enjoyed, but it does bring up a point, currently the roads(however bad they are) are funded by a gas tax. At some point in the future, there will need to be another source of funds to maintain them. The tax on registration is not the way to do it. It needs somehow to be based on the type of vehicle and the miles driven, and no a toll both on every corner is not the answer either.
Just a side note, there have been a lot of dump trucks lately on the roads I drive and just as sudden, there are a lot of pot holes requiring road repair(no issue for years). Granted, Florida basically has sand under everything and so if the pavement is not thick(like really thick) it can’t with stand the treatment.
There’s an old saying that it goes, “If you want more of something, subsidize it. If you want less of something, tax it.”
I guess we know which side the birdbrain politicians who proposed the EV / Hybrid tax vehicles are on.