Pay-per-mile tax gets test drive in Washington Legislature to augment gas tax
spokanepublicradio.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from spokanepublicradio.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Washington state legislature considering bill mandating all-electric LDVs after MY 2030
The Washington state legislature held a public hearing on Clean Cars 2030, a bill reintroduced with 27 co-sponsors. The bill, HB 1204/SB 5256, requires all model year 2030 or later passenger and light-duty vehicles sold in Washington State to be electric.
Since the bill was introduced last year as the first-of-its-kind in the US to set a deadline for the transition to EVs, California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey have announced 2035 targets for ending sales of new internal combustion engined cars.
The bill:
Requires the Washington State Transportation Commission (Commission) to adopt regulations on or before 1 January 2025, mandating that all model year 2030 or later passenger and light-duty vehicles registered in Washington be electric vehicles, except for emergency services vehicles. Electric vehicles are defined as “vehicles that use energy stored in rechargeable battery packs or in hy
Push for electric cars could be âgame changerâ
Privacy, technology, and scale concerns remain challenges February 2, 2021 2:16 PM By Lillianna Byington
Pete Buttigieg, confirmed by the Senate Tuesday as transportation secretary, will take office with a funding crisis confronting the nationâs highway system.
The main source of federal money for highways and transit, the gasoline tax, hasnât been increased since 1993. Without additional revenue, the Highway Trust Fund will soon run out of money.
From his confirmation hearing to his run for the Democratic presidential nomination, Buttigieg has repeatedly floated a solution: a vehicle miles traveled tax.
Proposals for a VMT tax have been considered and rejected in years past. This time may be different, lawmakers and experts say. Increased investment in electric vehicles, Democratic control of Congress, bipartisan interest, and President Joe Bidenâs opposition to increasing the gas tax could ju
BLOG
A broad coalition of businesses, labor groups, and associations, including Washington Policy Center, have urged lawmakers that “if a Road Usage Charge (RUC) is enacted, any revenues [should] include protection under the 18
th Amendment to the Washington State Constitution.”
The 18
th Amendment protects certain revenue, like the gas tax, for highway spending only. As the letter points out, “The legislature has a long history of sweeping funds for other uses and the constitutional protection is the gold standard in ensuring drivers that those dollars are not at risk.”
The RUC is a per-mile charge being studied by the Washington State Transportation Commission (WSTC) and is intended to replace the gas tax. Therefore, it should replicate the features of a gas tax, including how the money is dedicated and spent. The letter echoes this basic principle.
vimarsana © 2020. All Rights Reserved.