Overcharged on taxes

It has bothered me since our state government put an “excise tax” on hybrid and electric cars, so I finally did some research to determine how much of a penalty people are paying to own one in Arkansas.

I chose a Toyota Camry (top-selling midsized sedan) for comparison. The gas model gets an average of 34 mpg, the hybrid 46 mpg. (It costs about $4,000 more than the gas model, so you pay $230 extra sales tax at purchase.) According to the insurance industry, the average number of miles a car is driven a year is 13,476. Doing simple math, the gas model burns 396.35 gallons in a year, and the hybrid 292.96. The hybrid uses 103.39 gallons less per year. Multiply that times 24.5 cents, the state tax per gallon, and you get $25.33 in “lost tax.” Why am I paying an extra $100 to drive a hybrid? I’ll pay the $25.33, but completely object to the extra $74.67. Using the Camry’s 34 mpg to figure tax on an all-electric vehicle comes out to $97.10 a year, not the $200 fee being charged.

I ask that state senators and representatives fix this during their next session. Also, I plan to vote against making the half-cent sales tax for highways permanent. When it was voted on in 2012, effective July 2013, it was supposed to end in 2023. That’s how it was sold to Arkansas voters. The governor and others are now saying, “please vote for it, it isn’t a new tax, you are used to paying it.” Sunset clauses in taxes are a deceptive tool to make it easier to get a tax bill passed. They almost always ask for them to be extended. They should all be written so they cannot be extended or made permanent and cannot be renewed for at least three years after they expire.

DAVE FREEMAN Garfield