TL;DR - IMO, the $75 is put towards a huge number of transportation items which don't seem to further the goals of RCW 46.17.324, the $75 charge. Hydrogen fueling stations, electric school buses, lots of studies! Most of the money seems to be transferred to the 'multimodal transportation account' - HUGE budget with massive transportation & transit related projects.
I recently spent a bit of time looking into the EV charges that appear on our tabs. The $150 electric car fee (RCW 46.17.323) is easy to understand - pay for transport infrastructure seeing as EV owners don't pay gas tax. I didn't understand the $75 transportation electrification fee (RCW 46.17.324) - what is it supposed to be used for and what has been delivered using the fees collected so far?
I did contact Sen. Lisa Wellman, did get a response, but was no wiser! The response didn't differentiate between the two charges and provided no information on what the $75 fee has been spent on and been delivered!
How much money are we talking about? Given there were about 166K BEVs and PHEVs in the state as of Dec'23, that is ~$12.5 million per year.
The $75 gets paid into the 'electric vehicle account' -
RCW 82.44.200
Where does that money go? I found the
2023 transportation budget. Here's what I could find:
- $220K for independent study on electricity utility distribution infrastructure???
- $443K, as part of dept of licensing $430 million item covering a huge number of items, none of which seem EV related.
- $4.7M for public/private partnerships program, which is a $199M budget!!! $3.7M for infrastructure program; $1M for a DC fast charging and hydrogen fueling station near Wenatchee. WTF!!! Millions for replacing school buses with electric versions - really going to make a difference to CO2 emissions??? Millions for hydrogen refueling for all those fuel cell vehicles that don't exist.
- $23M transferred to 'multimodal transportation account'. Special needs transportation, rural mobility, rideshare, rail infrastructure, pedestrian & bicycle safety programs - huge number of items, which are difficult to understand and work out concrete deliverables.
IMO, the $75 fee just disappears into the black hole of the massive transportation budget, does nothing to fulfill the goals of the fee, is not justified, and should be removed. If the state wants EV owners to contribute more to roads, then increase the current $150 fee, but stop making us contribute to various transportation projects.