Unintended Consequences

One of the more active “green” states is Oregon and following a very active campaign encouraging drivers to switch to electric cars no has learned the bitter truth that those who do switch will avoid paying tax at the fuel pump. As all good politicians do they are planning to fix that problem as soon as possible. They plan on introducing an odometer fee.

A bill in the Legislature is aimed at the growing fleet of cars and trucks that plug in rather than guzzle in lieu of paying the gas tax that helps cover the cost of state and local road construction and maintenance

They plan to charge a fee of 0.6 cents per gallon (interesting thought…that watts can be compared to gallons for tax purposes) and would cost an owner that drove his car 15,000 miles some $90 in “user” fees). Drivers would pay a "vehicle road usage charge", starting with model year 2014 electric vehicles and plug-in gas-electric hybrids. The state is now trying to devise a method of automatically recording the odometer reading of the vehicle in order to encourage honest reporting. Drivers would need to use a log book, or other method of documenting driving off Oregon roads in order to claim a refund from the state.

A well meaning driver, wanting to be socially appropriate goes in hoc to buy an overpriced electric car, gets hit with a humongous battery replacement bill when the original batteries fail and now has to pay a user fee that cannot be claimed as a deductable tax. We really are living in interesting times.