There’s New Tax They Are Trying To Make Drivers Pay Next That Will…

State governments are starting to consider methods to alter the way they collect road taxes in response to the rise in the number of electric vehicles on the road, and this move is likely to have an impact on everyone, not just EV drivers.

States have promoted gas taxes for years as a way to obtain funds to repair surface roads, bridges, and infrastructure. A cornerstone for governments, counties, and localities is the per-gallon tax.

Bloomberg notes that, however, the last time gas taxes and other road user fees, like tolls, entirely covered the cost of road repair and upkeep was in the late 1960s. Since then, the taxes have not been enough to fully cover the cost of maintaining the roads. The remaining funds come from general revenues, according to Bloomberg.

It goes without saying that MPs have been pining for a fresh approach to taxing motorists to help pay for roads for decades, and it appears that electric vehicles will be their justification for slapping us all with new and significantly higher taxes.

The majority of EV owners joyously brag about not having to pay the fuel tax that the rest of us must pay each time we fill up because they don’t buy gas. Nevertheless, despite their boasting, EV drivers might damage our roads more than those who drive gas-powered vehicles.

Because they are so much heavier than gas-powered vehicles, electric vehicles are harder on the road’s surface. Some analysts are even concerned that the heavy battery packs and additional steel required to support their weight, which add thousands of pounds to EVs, may reduce their safety on the road.

State officials are beginning to explore for alternative methods of collection because EV owners use the roads but do not pay gas taxes.

States are also searching for additional revenue-generating opportunities, as Fox Business Network reported on Sunday, including taxes on EV charging stations, higher utility electricity rates, and fees on package delivery services.

The most pernicious proposal is a per-mile tax that would apply to all drivers, regardless of the type of vehicle they drive.

“One proposal that seems to be gaining in popularity would be to charge drivers by the mile instead of the gallon,” Fox Business reported.

To date, three states, Oregon, Utah, and Virginia are trying this concept in pilot programs. But, Fox Business adds that the federal government is also set to start its own pilot program.

According to Asha Weinstein Agrawal, the director of the National Transportation Finance Center at San Jose State University’s Mineta Transportation Institute:

“There is growing support for mileage-based fees, special rates for low-income drivers, and rates tied to how much pollution a vehicle generates.”

Oh, you better believe it. Additionally, these levies will be far greater than the present gas tax. And not just EV drivers will be subject to these levies. After all, tax collectors detect blood in the water.

In March 2021, Pete Buttigieg, the ineffective Transportation Secretary under President Joe Biden, discussed the issue with CNBC.

“So, I think that shows a lot of promise. If we believe in that so-called user pays principle — the idea of part of how we pay for roads is you pay based on how much you drive — the gas tax used to be the obvious way to do it,” the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said.

“It’s not anymore, so so-called vehicle miles traveled tax, or mileage tax, whatever you want to call it, could be a way to do it,” he said.

Per-mile taxes have a lot of issues. They would first disproportionately affect rural drivers who frequently had to travel further distances.

Additionally, it would just be one more expense that would make owning a car impossible for people in lower-income strata.

But there are also a lot of additional issues. To track use, devices would need to be fastened to cars. However, privacy advocates are concerned that these gadgets are merely another means of following individuals around and monitoring their whereabouts, distance traveled, and mode of transportation.

As Politico reported in 2017, per-mile tax devices may contain GPS devices to track drivers, and these taxes “face opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union, which sees warrantless GPS tracking as a violation of personal privacy. The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that using GPS to track a person’s movement without a warrant was unconstitutional.”

“The problem comes the minute you introduce a device in the vehicle” because Americans “do not want the government to know where they are and where they are going,” energy consultant Geoffrey Styles told NBC News in a 2011 report.

Who would, right?

But everything smells like a bait-and-switch. Americans were sold EVs by Biden and his green communists as a way to save money. They advised against buying gas. Just plug in and enjoy “free” electricity, they claimed. They keep saying, “Use a more efficient car to save, save, save.”

And let’s not even begin to discuss the myth that EVs are more environmentally friendly.

What will happen, though? Driving costs will increase significantly more than gas taxes, electric prices will soar to the point that many states won’t even be able to meet demand, and taxes will make driving unaffordable for more Americans.

It’s almost as if pushing Americans out of owning their own car and having the freedom of movement that entails was their goal all along.