With state and highway infrastructure funds running low, lawmakers and regulators are searching for ways to raise new money, and are considering a hike in gas taxes as well as ‘pay-as-you-go’ fees.
New fees for electrified vehicles as a way to get hybrid and EV owners to “pay their fair share” towards maintaining the state’s bridges and roads are being considered.
“We need to have (owners of electrified vehicles) pay their share” for road maintenance, Lorraine Inouye, chairwoman of the Hawaiian Senate Transportation Committee, said this week as the body approved a bill that would charge hybrids owners $35 a year above existing weight taxes and registration fees, with the added cost jumping to $70 for pure battery-electric vehicles.
Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.