Republican lawmakers have proposed an annual $200 fee for electric vehicles to shore up the struggling Highway Trust Fund.
Fixing the Highway Trust Fund's longstanding structural deficit is expected to be a theme in the next surface transportation bill, but Republicans floated the EV fee proposal Tuesday as part of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's
In addition to the $200 EV fee, the bill calls for a $100 fee on hybrids and $20 federal annual registration on all vehicles starting in 2031. Together the fees would raise at least $50 billion over 10 years, according to Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo.
The committee will vote on the budget Wednesday, Graves said. "If successful, these new user fees would represent the first new funding streams into the Highway Trust Fund in more than 30 years," Graves said in a statement.
Committee members on both sides of the aisle seemed to support the EV fee, although some Democrats questioned whether $200 is too high. Ranking committee member Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., noted that at least 39 states assess annual EV fees, ranging from $50 to $290.
"Electric vehicles are not the cause of today's Trust Fund insolvency — but as they become more prevalent, incorporating them into a user-pays system is appropriate," Larsen said.
EVs, which are typically heavier than gas-powered cars due to the weight of their very large batteries, currently pay nothing into the Highway Trust Fund, which is the source of most federal funding for highway and mass transit projects. The HTF is supported by a federal tax on gasoline and diesel, which accounts for 83%, as well as a sales tax on tractors and heavy trucks, an excise tax on tires for heavy vehicles, and an annual use tax on tractors and trucks.
The tax rates, 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel, have not changed since 1993. Since 2008, Congress has transferred $275 billion from the general fund to the HTF, said Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., at a Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee Tuesday hearing to consider solutions for the HTF.
"While general fund bailouts have offered short-term relief at the expense of the individual American taxpayer, they do not address the long-term challenges that plague the Highway Trust Fund," Rouzer said.
A new EV fee marks "the first real attempt by Congress to address the Trust Fund's solvency problems in more than 30 years," he said, but "this fee alone will certainly not solve the estimated $142 billion shortfall."
The American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials supports a new EV fee, Utah Transportation Secretary Carlos Braceras told lawmakers. Utah, which charges EVs $140 a year, also operates a road usage charge program and levies a sales tax for capital projects, Braceras said.
"We've found it takes us several revenue sources" to maintain and operate the state's transportation system," he said.
Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., said the committee has had several hearings over the last decade about the need to shore up the HTF but nothing has changed. She noted that only House Ways and Means Committee has the authority to enact new revenue sources, and it "has been unable to come up with a solution."
"I wish we were having a joint hearing" with Ways and Means or "we could change House rules to give Transportation and Infrastructure jurisdiction over the revenue piece of the Highway Trust Fund," she said. "Maybe then we could really make some headway," she said. "It seems we may be doomed to repeat the same hearing every couple of years, like the movie Groundhog Day."
