Our View

Our View

Finding a new way to fund highways

Scott Bennett, the head honcho, the “big fish” at the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, never has enough money to do his job of maintaining our roads, highways and bridges, and the reason is simply a problem we have all brought upon ourselves.

Our demand for more fuel efficient vehicles and the pressures from environmentalists demanding auto manufacturers to produce more hybrid and fully electric vehicles has had a dramatic impact on a national system of fuel taxation that has become totally antiquated.

For years Arkansas lawmakers have struggled with coming up with new highway revenue sources to pacify Bennett, and a couple years ago lawmakers even tossed around the idea of a vehicle miles traveled pilot project.

Bennett’s bureaucrats want to establish this voluntary project as an alternative to paying fuel taxes which would apply to all vehicles regardless whether they are hybrid, gasoline operated or even fully electric.

This is a concept that has drawn sharp criticism and it is seriously doubtful this GOP-dominated Legislature will have much to do with it because the people’s perception at this point is just another tax on top of an already existing tax.

An idea Bennett is now tossing around is one we wonder why it hasn’t been suggested long ago and deals specifically with targeting electric vehicles, which as we all know, pays absolutely none of the local, state and national gas taxes the majority of us pay when filling our tanks.

Let’s make it clearly understood, the actual number of electric vehicles in Arkansas is only a little more than 330 according to last count versus 2.8 million vehicles that operated on the traditional gasoline.

We all are smart enough to realize at this point the idea of increasing the annual registration fee for electric vehicles to a level equal to what gasoline-powered vehicles pay in fuel taxes won’t, by any stretch of the imagination, solve highway funding issues but, as Bennett pointed out, would be a fairness issue.

We’re told if this idea does get the go-ahead, registration fees will go up for hybrid vehicles, which use regular gasoline but pay less in taxes because they get significantly improved mileage per gallon.

Bennett’s proposal certainly makes sense knowing that at least 10 other states have imposed similar fees on electric vehicles.

We’re told Indiana might also be added to the list. It’s legislature is considering a plan to institute a $150 annual fee for buyers of electric vehicles and plug-in vehicles. At the same time, were told, the state would impose a $15 annual registration fee on all vehicles and raise the state tax on gasoline by 10 cents per gallon.

Let’s look at the situation this way, one on side of the isle we have the bureaucrats wanting more fees and taxes and on the other side of the isle we have Gov.

Asa Hutchinson wanting to cut taxes for the lowincome which, by the way, over 330,000 of them are on government subsidies from free health care to food stamps.

As we are all aware, such tax ideas and increasing government fees are regressive and impact those Arkansans the hardest.

While what Bennett is now suggesting is certainly worth considering in light of the fact that the people affected aren’t now paying their fair share like the rest of us.