Analysis: $100 Hybrid Fee Would Add $8 Million/Year For Road Work

The state’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau says a 100-dollar fee for electric and hybrid vehicle owners would bring in eight-million dollars a year for road work. Some majority Republicans have brought up the fee to help cover a shortfall in scheduled road projects. Supporters say it would make electric and hybrid owners pay their fair share for road work, since they pay little or nothing in gas taxes. But some hybrid owners say it’s not fair to single them out, while the G-O-P rejects other tax and fee hikes — and critics in the past have said such a fee punishes electric and hybrid car owners for being environmentally conscious, which governments at all levels had encouraged for years. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald have not commented on the hybrid fee, offered as a way to help end a standoff within the G-O-P on road funding that has held up approval of the new state budget for almost two months.