Electric car owners will have to make up for non-gas taxes
QNo, no, no. Don’t penalize electric car drivers for using our roads with this $100 registration fee. Please don’t voice support for fees on electric car drivers.
Only about 4% of California cars are electric. We need far more electric cars soon and to make it happen we need to increase rewards, not penalties, for clean driving.
Burning fossil fuels is wrecking the future of our children and grandchildren. Every gallon of gas burned pushes another 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air. Especially during COVID-19 times when we’re wary of mass transit, we need to make it as easy as possible in every way for people to drive electric cars.
— Doug McKenzie,
Berkeley
AThe $100 fee is now in place and will rise in future years based on the market value of one’s electric vehicle. EVs help reduce CO2 emissions, which is critical. Owners save on gas, which helps cut the total cost of ownership. Yet these cars contribute, as all vehicles do, to road wear and tear. The registration fee helps to address that.
QYou wrote that it’s time for electric car owners to pay our fair share of taxes for maintaining roads. Fine. Now, do we get a rebate on all the taxes we’re paying to keep gas-burning cars on the road, starting with the costs of Middle East wars, health insurance subsidies and environmental cleanup?
— Bob Burns, Saratoga
AThe Department of Defense estimates it has cost more than $1 trillion for the Afghan and Iraq wars, so far, a cost borne by all taxpayers, whether drivers or not.
QI renewed a tag online in March (due May 22). I knew that the DMV was behind on such matters. When June passed, I still didn’t have the tags. I researched the problem with the DMV and AAA, etc. Result: I had not pushed the right button.
Now I have just paid $241 for being late for a tag that would have been $88. That’s more than the monthly mortgage payment and insurance that I paid for a house!
I am on a fixed income and below the poverty level. The only reason I’m not furious enough to protest (read RIOT), is because you said that the CHP gets paid from the funds from DMV. I am all in for the CHP. But if you can save another senior citizen from this problem, please advise.
— Oscar Bickerton
ATo request a refund, go to bit.ly/38BptIW or mail an Application for Refund (ADM 399) along with any required documentation to the address provided on the form.
Join Gary Richards for an hourlong chat noon Wednesday at www.mercurynews. com/livechats. Look for Gary at Facebook.com/mr.roadshow, or contact him at mrroadshow@ bayareanewsgroup.com or 408-920-5335. Contact Gary Richards at grichards@bayareanewsgroup.com or 408-920-5037.