Washington State Considers Annual Flat Fee for Electric Cars

A user base tax to drive a car on public road is another way how the government is trying to siphon every penny we earn. This tax will affect every person who owns a car. It will affect every social economic class; from the poor to the very rich. The government doesn't discriminate anybody because they believes it's their money and they want it. By the way, the user base tax will not only affect electric cars, but also, eventually affect cars that run on gas and the combination of gas/electric. The government isn't stupid. They have all areas covered. The annual flat fee to drive an electric car is only the beginning.

(Yahoo) OLYMPIA, Wash. – Drivers of electric cars may have left the gas pump behind, but there's one expense they may not be able to shake: paying to maintain the roads.

After years of urging residents to buy fuel-efficient cars and giving them tax breaks to do it, Washington state lawmakers are considering a measure to charge them a $100 annual fee — what would be the nation's first electric car fee.

State lawmakers grappling with a $5 billion deficit are facing declining gas tax revenue, which means less money to maintain or improve roads.

"Electric vehicles put just as much wear and tear on our roads as gas vehicles," said Democratic state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, the bill's lead sponsor. "This simply ensures that they contribute their fair share to the upkeep of our roads."

Other states are trying to find solutions to the same problem, as cars become more fuel-efficient and, now, don't use any gas at all.

In Oregon, lawmakers are considering a bill to charge drivers of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles based on the number of miles they drive. In Mississippi, lawmakers briefly considered a similar plan. In Texas, significant opposition scuttled an electric vehicle fee.

In Washington state, some electric car drivers and lawmakers are against the fee, saying they prefer paying based on how much they actually drive.

Of course, such use-based fees could end up costing drivers more.

With a Democrat in the Oval Office, Five Dollars a Gallon is No Big Deal

Rush Limbaugh exposes the hypocrisy of the Main Stream Media. Under Bush, the media went on a rampage with the $4.00/gallon of gasoline, but under Obama, it is denyingly quiet. It is abundantly clear that Obama is forcing us to change our ways. The president wants us to get rid of our big SUVs and trucks. Obama wants us to buy expensive hybrids, smaller economical cars (deathtraps), use more mass transit, and buy defective electric cars. Well, the government cannot tell the American public or force us to buy something that we don't want.

Transcript from Rush Limbaugh Show

RUSH: It is so predictable. There's MSNBC during their one-year retrospective impact of the Gulf oil spill. And you know what the purpose is of this particular episode being anchored by Andrea Mitchell is. The purpose here is to make sure we don't drill for oil ever again. It's to support Obama and the regime 'cause, man, look what almost happened. Do you realize every prediction of doom and disaster from that oil spill ended up being totally wrong, as wrong as you could be if you wanted to be a hundred percent wrong, and yet here they are, their one year retrospective with the whole focal point being, "Boy, it was a disaster, dangerous, could have been really disastrous. We better never drill for oil again." Why do this? What's the big deal about this anniversary? And to whom is it an anniversary, aside from the media? Zilch, nobody.

I want to show you something on the Dittocam. I just turned it off while I zoomed tight. We did a little Google search here. In the previous hour of the program I made reference to the fact that, where are all the stories on the gasoline price going up? Five bucks a gallon. If you heard the riff, you know, I don't need to repeat it, basically the point of it was that compared to 2005, the last time gasoline prices spiked big time, there's no coverage of it. So, yeah, while the price is exceeding four bucks in many places, five bucks in Washington, there's not this accompanying panic. No. What are we getting? A one-year look-back at the oil spill. So the media is doing everything it can to suppress any negative economic impact to Obama, virtually no coverage of the rising gasoline price.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is a search, gasoline prices, Google trends. Here it is. That big spike that you see on the left is 2005 when the price was approaching four bucks a gallon and the oil price was around $150. That's been the way they've been covering gasoline prices since. This year, no coverage. See the little spike there. It just proves the point that I was making an hour ago, and that is that there's no coverage on this. I mean people are sending me notes, "Gasoline prices are skyrocketing. People are really feeling the pain." Are they? Do they know it? They're feeling it but do they think anybody else is feeling it? There's no news on it and there's certainly no negative news about it. Whatever news about the gas price going up tends to be, "Well, you know, there's really some good news about this. Less dependence on foreign oil. Less travel. Less accidents. Fewer lives lost." I mean, they're actually doing stories on the benefits of rising gasoline prices. Something you would never see, of course, if a Republican were in the Oval Office.