Road Tax Fees

Here in Oklahoma, the state is in a budgetary crisis, like other states. The legislators are looking at all creative avenues for increased avenues. One of the ways in our state is HB1449. In the bills early form, it proposed an annual fee for EV and Hybrids of $150 per year above the routine registration fees. The fee was arbitrated to $100/year when it barely past the legislature and is now in our Senate and being reviewed. There are a lot of concerned interest in our state who have been on-top of this bill since its inception in Feb17. This also includes at least one of the biggest electrical utility companies in the state, city planners, environmental groups and individual citizens. I believe all parties understand that the road tax is necessary to maintain the roads. In our state, 16 cents per gallon of gas is the state tax fee. Some of it goes towards road building and repairs. Most interested parties feel it is too high at $100/yr. $50/year seems to be a number that keeps coming up in discussion. I have to agree that a road tax fee is necessary. EV do use roads. An average EV weighs 20-30% more than a comparable ICE. An EV range kind of limits how many road-miles it can impose its weight on to do wear and tear to. But fees equalling ICE vehicles reduces the environmental and finnancial incentive of a transitional technology. In a state that is dominated by the hydro-carbon-petro industry, I found it refreshing how many concerned interests were on the side of EV and hybrids. We will see how this works out as they politicians are getting ready to go on break and must get some bills handled.
I would be intested to know how your state/country handles this issue.
Road Jager

Yes, EVs should pay their fair share for road maintenance, and an annual flat fee is one way. Similar bills are being introduced to charge solar users for tying into the grid they barely use.
The broader discussion is the extent to which green technologies should be subsidized (nurtured) in their developmental stages. Independent analyses of |fossil-fuel subsidies + untaxed CO2 externalities| vs. green subsidies show that on that utopian level playing field green beats carbon every time, with nuclear coming in hopelessly last.
Oklahoma's infrastructure would be in far far better shape if it removed carbon subsidies and taxed it at its true cost to society rather than just sticking it to EVs.