IT NEVER ENDS IN CALIFORNIA

If the mileage tax replaces the gas tax, which is the plan, and is not in addition to it, I'm all for it.  The drivers in California aren't upset, it's the EV drivers because they don't pay the gas tax.  This way everyone pays something, and if drops the price of gas as well, awesome.  

Who knows how this will shake out, but it is not in addition to the gas tax.  It would replace the gas tax so that all drivers, gas and EV cars, would pay.  

Not sure why the link below references Facebook when I got it from the Fox26News site.    Anyway, it mentions that the mileage tax would replace the gas tax. 

https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1532663941293217

That's a Tom-lie. The mileage tax will replace the gas tax.

The effect is that EV drivers will pay a greater share of taxes than before. That ought to soak Miller's and Tom's panties with joy-juice. So why Miller is bitching...who knows?

Indiana has a gas tax plus a "surcharge" on registration fees for EVs and hybrids. So here is a red state with two taxes and hybrids drivers pay both. So all you folks complaining about California ought to look at the red states. My understanding is a lot of them already have the "double taxation" that Tom is complaining about. Funny Tom never brought those up? 

Texas has a particularly high fee. $400 at the first registration and then $200 thereafter.

What I mean is I don't want to be charged a tax  from my state for using out-of-state roads. 

A couple years ago I had a cross country road trip. I drove from Washington State to Texas and back. I don't think it would be fair for Washington to charge me for all the driving I did in other states. 

Well, how could you possibly track mileage so that it distinguished between states driven in...some kind of GPS?? And every car would have to have one...?

I guess the idea is that it would all even out, as in your example, people driving to Washington from Texas would be paying extra tax to their home state. It would be an overall use tax, which seems inherently fair, as those who use the roads (in any state) more would pay more.

All that said, I don't see anything wrong with the gas tax as it is. This mileage tax seems like a crusade against EV owners who are getting a "free ride." MAGA hates hates hates EVs, as less money is stuffed into the pockets of their masters, the fossil fuel industry. Thus, we've moved from giving tax breaks to those who bought EVs to stripping those tax breaks away. With MAGA in charge, EVs are now EVil.

I don't know how to distinguish miliege between in state and out of state. I just know I don't want to pay Washington a tax to drive in Nevada. Also if it is per mile then that means visitors use the roads tax free. 

Maybe EVs should be charged "at the pump"  too. Or more accurately, at the charging stations.

That won't work, because you can charge up at home, or pretty much any place with an electrical outlet. Plus, we'd have to retrofit every single public charging station with a payment terminal.

Under this mileage tax plan, visitors to a state would still pay tax--to their home state. While that might seem inherently unfair, it would balance out over time. I would surmise that not every state has the same number of visitors, and not the same number of residents who visit other states, but it would vary roughly by size (not necessarily population) and position. For instance, wastelands like the Dakotas and Texas collect gas tax revenue because so many people are forced to cross those states to get to someplace desirable. That would go away if each state charged by mileage.

So I think this would be attractive to the MAGA shit states because EV owners would pay more taxes, but unattractive to them because they would no longer be reaching out and snatching tax money from the pockets of people just passing through (and trying to get the hell out of there).

Seems like an unworkable plan. If states want to tax EV owners, so that they pay roughly the equivalent of what regular car owners pay, you could tax THEM by adding a surcharge to their registration. It would have to be a flat amount, regardless of actual mileage driven.

All this nonsense is just Trump trying to undo Democratic policies that have encouraged EV purchases and usage.. 

Most public stations that I see already have payment terminals. True people can charge at home but not everyone does. And for people with home charging stations the could have some sort of meter attached. 

True people that just plug in a basic extension cord would avoid the tax but I am okay with that. Maybe they just get to avoid some taxes by having an EV. 

But there's no serious discussion of having all states  switch it's only a few states that are talking about switching. That will put people in a situation where not only are they paying gasoline taxes as they travel out of state but they also owe their home state tax. 

Then the only fair policy would be to allow people to keep a log of the miles they travel out of state and then allow them to deduct those miles from their overall taxable total. That would of course depend on honest and accurate reporting and it would be on the honor system.

It wouldn't be much different from a business owner reporting vehicle miles as an expense. The IRS doesn't come by and peek at your odometer(s). So of course, there would be fraud and fudging. But the vast majority of people (more than the vast majority of people think) are honest.

I don't see any rational reason to "punish" EV owners by making them pay taxes that they "should" be paying. They're not spewing carbon and other pollutants, so they're inflicting less burden on the body politic than gasoline-powered car drivers. That should translate to less taxation.

BTW, as in years past I drove over 50,000 miles a year (I pretty much went everywhere in the West and Canada as well as several cross-country trips), a mileage tax would have crushed me. I've driven across Texas five times, and I think I should have been paid for doing that. Yuck, what an awful place!