In a report to state lawmakers, the Legislative Auditor’s Office says Louisiana needs to consider higher road usage fees if it wants to stay ahead of the rising cost of maintaining roads and bridges. Gina Brown is a Performance Audit Manager with the Legislative Auditor. She says the state could lose well over $500-million in road use fees and gasoline taxes for roads over the next ten years…
“Even your gasoline vehicles are more fuel-efficient, so you’re getting more miles per gallon…and you have electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles…so all these types of vehicles are using less gas,” Brown says.
She says it’s projected that around one-third of all vehicles in Louisiana will be electric within 10 years. That will mean less gas & diesel bought at the pump and less motor fuels road taxes collected. Last year the state imposed a road usage fee of $110 yearly for owners of all-electric cars and $60 for EV hybrid vehicles. Brown says that’s not enough…
“We would recommend that battery electric vehicles go up by two dollars, so from $110 to $112. And hybrid electric vehicles go up from $60 to $96 a year.”
Brown says the real problem with the EV road uses taxes is they are paid voluntarily when filing state income tax, and many will NOT report or pay.
Motorists driving regular gas powered vehicles pay their share by way of 20-cents per gallon taxed at the pump. That hasn’t been increased in over 20 years. Brown says that also needs to be raised to help meet the $15-billion backlog in road and bridge projects statewide. She says other states, like Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas, index their fuels tax to inflation…:
“One of the reasons we wanted to put out this report was to show how other states are diversifying paying for their roads, and what the increased new technology means for Louisiana.”
Lawmakers will use the auditor’s report in formulating possible new legislation to fund road & bridge upkeep.
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