A new bill introduced in the Kansas State House seems to target low income families by putting a tax on public – not private – EV charging.
The proposed law joins a growing list of similarly targeted legislation from predominantly rural governments that paints a bullseye on both electric mobility and apartment-dwelling urbanites. In this case, the latter are effectively being double taxed on the energy they plan to use to move people and things around their cities.
“Double taxed,” because owners of all-electric cars and trucks already pay a higher, $100 registration fee to the Kansas Department of Revenue. That $100 fee, approved by the state in 2019, is supposed to make up for EV owners avoiding the fuel tax of 24 cents per gallon earmarked for highway repairs and construction.
The registration fee for gasoline-powered vehicles in Kansas is $30.
“It is disappointing to learn the Kansas House may adopt legislation hostile to EV owners and commercial EV chargers,” Kansas resident Joe Millikan told the state’s House Transportation Committee. “It will discourage additional EV charging stations in Kansas just as the number of EVs (on the road) are growing rapidly.”
The additional electric tax, proposed at $0.03 per kWh, would ostensibly go to a Kansas highway repair fund, which Republicans in the state house, including Re. Bill Rhiley, claim is reliant on revenue generated by the gas tax.
So much for “no new taxes,” apparently.
Non-compliance with the Kansas law, if it passes, would technically be a misdemeanor, but it would be punishable by a heavy fine of up to $25 per kilowatt hour of energy sold to EV consumers, a sanction of between $5,000 and $50,000, and/or a sentence of, “not less than 30 days in a county jail.” (!?)
SOURCE | IMAGES: THE REFLECTOR, VIA GREEN CAR REPORTS.
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