Editorial: Electric car tax measure a reasonable first step

There’s been a nasty collision at the intersection of taxation and technology.

The vehicles traveling our highways these days are more fuel-efficient, so they require less gasoline; a growing number of electric cars use none at all. That’s good news on the environmental and energy-independence fronts.

But drivers are paying less in fuel taxes, the primary source of highway construction and maintenance funds. And that’s bad news at a time when Washington state faces up to $200 billion in transportation needs over the next two decades.

Should environmentally conscious motorists who invest in electric cars get off scot-free for their share of providing the infrastructure they still use? Or should they be singled out for a separate tax that nobody else pays, just to compensate for the one that’s assessed on a product they don’t need?

A bill now under consideration by the Legislature opts for the latter. If enacted, the measure will charge electric car owners a $100 annual fee, about half of what transportation officials estimate the average motor vehicle driver spends each year on fuel taxes.

It’s a necessary and reasonable approach for the time being. Our economy and our way of life require mobility for people and goods, even if the tax structure lags behind changing consumption patterns. A vehicle with no fuel tank still requires a thoroughfare on which to travel and still creates wear and tear that must be repaired.

But while the proposal is justified, it is not a final answer. As electric car advocate Jay Friedland of Plug In America has put it, “The danger you get into is if you treat electric vehicles in some radically different way than you treat the rest.”

A fair road-building tax will be proportionate to the demand placed on the infrastructure. With the right tracking technology and a political alignment among states, a verifiable tax based on vehicle miles traveled would be one way to improve on per-gallon fuel taxes.

But such a system also needs to acknowledge different circumstances in different areas.  A tax to cover pavement damage caused by studded tires, if such tires are allowed, would fall most heavily on Eastern Washington drivers, for example, and drivers in congested Puget Sound should expect to pay tolls that aren’t necessary or workable in less urbanized areas.

The electric car tax should be a temporary step, and the Legislature should move on to a comprehensive overhaul of an outdated transportation funding system.