Gone4Good
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2005
- Messages
- 5,381
But, what happens when the gas tax gets applied to EV's? At some point they have to pay their share of the taxes that supports the roads.
That's an interesting question. And because it's a question that will have a political answer, I'm sure we'll end up doing the worst possible thing.
Economists love things like the gas tax. Without such taxes there's no cost to the pollution generated from burning gasoline. Everyone gets to dump their pollution into the air for free, so we have more pollution than is desirable. Pigovian taxes, like the gas tax, are intended to put a price on that pollution.
Seen that way, the gasoline tax should definitely stay in place. And pure EV's should not pay that same tax because they don't burn gasoline. They should pay for the emissions that are produced to generate electricity, but that would be something entirely different (maybe a carbon tax.)
As for funding our roads, we should get away from relying on the gasoline tax and probably just fund them directly. Or, if you wanted to allocate the cost to drivers, move more toward toll roads.