Senate Budget Would Require EV/Hybrid Drivers To Pay More | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Barry Smith, who is an associate editor to the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Registration surcharge would recoup a portion of lost fuel taxes

    RALEIGH     Drivers of some of the most fuel-efficient cars in North Carolina would be hit with extra license registration fees under the proposed Senate budget.

    It's an effort by senators to recoup money from motorists who are not paying the same amount drivers of traditional vehicles pay in gasoline taxes.

    "They're using the highways; gas tax is funding highway maintenance and highway construction," said Sen. Neal Hunt, R-Wake, co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "All the electric vehicles are using the highways. They are currently not paying anything. So we are trying to have them contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of the highways."

    The proposed Senate budget would add $100 annually for electric vehicle registration and $50 annually for hybrid vehicles.

    The surcharges would be in addition to the $28 annual fee already charged to motorists.

    "They don't pay the motor fuels tax," said Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, co-chairman of the subcommittee overseeing transportation appropriations. "They should be paying something. There are going to be more and more of them."

    The new fees are expected to bring in $1.5 million a year to the state's Highway Fund.

    Rabon said that when the number of EV and hybrid cars increases, that total should increase.

    The proposed budget also would eliminate three projects from consideration as toll roads. Those are the Garden Parkway in Gaston and Mecklenburg counties, the Cape Fear Skyway in New Hanover County, and the Mid-Currituck Bridge along the Outer Banks.

    Rabon said that the problem with the toll projects is that they haven't been able to stand on their own and have required supplemental funding from the General Assembly to bridge the gap between what tolls would bring in and what would be necessary to pay off the bonds for the projects.

    "The bone [of contention] there has always been the gap funding," Rabon said. "We've eliminated gap funding. Nothing that we've done creates projects or kiss projects. It just puts them all in the same washtub. The good ones come out as clean laundry and the dirty laundry stays in for another washing."

    Rabon continued, "Our mission has been that we'll put all the rats in the sunlight, and we'll let the best ones live. ... The best projects, wherever they are, compete for the same funds."

    "It speaks directly to our philosophy of is it a data-driven process," said Sen. Kathy Harrington, R-Gaston, co-chairwoman of the subcommittee.

    Harrington has expressed concerns over the Garden Parkway project for years.

    "Take your politics out of the decision making," Harrington said. "Let [the state Department of Transportation] prioritize projects based on data-driven information."