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Nick Miller: Funding roadwork without penalizing EVs

Bloomberg photo by Jeenah Moon.

Nick Miller: Funding roadwork without penalizing EVs

A new proposal in the Pennsylvania legislature suggests one answer to the continuing problem of how to pay for the state’s roads in the long term. Road maintenance costs have soared, but revenue from the gas tax that pays for repairs has not risen enough to meet the need.The taxes — second highest in the nation, after California — have stayed flat while vehicles have become more fuel-efficient. And thanks to COVID, drivers in the state drove fewer miles.

At the same time, the number of electric vehicles in the state has grown from 9,800 in 2019 to over 63,000 today, and the number is rising steadily. EV owners, says state senator Wayne Langerholc (R-35), are “contributing more wear-and-tear on the road but not paying for it.” He has made a new proposal, outlined in a memo to his Senate colleagues, that would tax EV owners based on the number of miles they drive. 

Transportation experts have eyed mileage-based user fees (MBUFs) for all vehicles on the road as an alternative to the gasoline tax It would be fairer and more accurate than the flat annual fee some experts have proposed. With federal gas taxes static since 1993, road usage charges have been considered since 2005. Two decades and dozens of pilots later, policymakers are closer than ever before to identifying the best practices that can create a replacement policy for the gas tax.

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Langerholc’s well-intentioned proposal would burden a small handful of Pennsylvanians with the highest road usage charges in the country. It would not produce a significant amount of income.

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While gasoline taxes are levied when the gas is sold, mileage fees require another mechanism for taxing drivers. The proposal would establish a pilot program to tax Pennsylvania EV owners on the number of miles they drive. The odometer reading would be taken during the car’s annual inspection, which would be sent to PennDOT, which would send the driver an invoice.

A pilot program is the right start for a good program. But is Langerholc’s proposed program a good one? The initial proposal leads Pennsylvania in the wrong direction in three ways.

First, the proposal allows EV drivers to opt out of the pilot program through paying a $380 annual fee. For the average PA driver of a gasoline-powered vehicle, this is significantly higher than the roughly $290/year they pay in a year for state gas taxes.

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Second, the proposal requires EV drivers to pay per-mile fees that are significantly higher than Pennsylvania’s current gas tax. The proposed fee of $0.03 a mile is equivalent to a $0.75/gallon gasoline tax for the average vehicle. This is nearly 30% higher than the current $0.61 a gallon gas tax.

Third, the proposal only applies to EV owners and thus will only capture the experiences and concerns of a sliver of the population. At current registration rates, an EV-targeted MBUF would raise a minuscule amount of funding, ranging anywhere from $18 to $24 million a year, against PennDOT’s overall infrastructure deficit of $9.35 billion.

The proposal would burden EV drivers with punitive fees that would be the highest in the nation. Zero-emission vehicles should be encouraged for the positive impact they can have on our national security, public health and contribution towards carbon emission reduction. Research from the American Lung Association shows massive societal and public health benefits from EVs, with a monetary benefit estimated at $0.06/mile driven.

The issue of funding alternatives is not a fire nor a matchstick. We are at the kindling stage of a wider discussion on transportation funding solutions, leaving time for policymakers, advocates, and the industry to find the right solution.

A Ford Focus Electric car is displayed next to a home charging station at the 2012 LA Auto Show in Los Angeles.
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Everyone should be paying for their use of public roads. However, the current proposal must be reformed to yield a viable MBUF pilot, incorporating the lessons learned from other states like Utah, Oregon, and Washington. I hope state policymakers can create a program design that will best serve Pennsylvanians and provide a more sustainable and equitable funding solution for our infrastructure.

Nick Miller, a Pennsylvania native, is a policy analyst for the Electrification Coalition, who previously worked at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

The amount of the EV-targeted MBUF has been corrected to a range of from $18 to $24 million a year.

First Published: February 24, 2023, 5:00 a.m.

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