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KIRO TV doing report on EV Tax

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My thoughts are that we should get carpool access and be able to access bridges toll-free for our fee if we have 100% BEV's. Stop and go traffic is hard on range. We don't contribute as much pollution to the waterways either.
Plug-in hybrids that only use 2 or 10 gallons a year are not subject to the tax as far as I know. That doesn't seem fair.
California lets EV's use carpool lanes, but I don't understand why they include plug-in hybids.
 
I was contacted by kiro also but didn't respond.

I would love to have carpool lane access but would getting EV access to carpool lanes almost be the same as pay extra for carpool access? I think in California you get a sticker good for two years. I'd definitely pay extra for that.

The $100/year extra tax is a pain (got my license before that :)), but we do cause wear and tear on the roads - it's just a stopgap until they start charging everyone for mileage anyway. I've read numerous articles pointing out there's already a problem with tax revenues covering road costs because of improving gas mileage. Great observation about the loophole that the low gas use cars like volts don't have to pay very much with low gas usage. We don't contribute as much to pollution, so perhaps you could charge evs less, volts medium, and ice cars the most. Then add in a factor for weight or something. I don't expect anything reasonable from our dead-locked legislature though.

What I think we really need to do is go back to annual car tabs being based on car value - that might provide enough revenue to avoid having to report your annual mileage and pay a tax based on it. There would probably be a big tax hit on expensive cars (on my mod s, gulp), but we do need money to keep our infrastructure working.
 
What I think we really need to do is go back to annual car tabs being based on car value - that might provide enough revenue to avoid having to report your annual mileage and pay a tax based on it. There would probably be a big tax hit on expensive cars (on my mod s, gulp), but we do need money to keep our infrastructure working.

I was so glad that they stopped basing the tabs on car valuation. I remember paying $1300 a year for tabs for a 5 year old car. The tab tax didn't go down nearly as quickly as the car's value went down. It could be considered to be a penalty for buying a car that is well made and more durable vehicle.
 
By mileage makes way more sense than car value, imo. The only problem is tracking the mileage. If the state could stomach the longer intervals between payment, they could just check the odometer and smog check time. Or with newer cars with data features like with Tesla or OnStar, maybe the it could be reported automatically.
 
And this is from a very blue city/state. I guess Leaf and Volt owners are freeloaders too. Such poor journalism. We need to Broder KIRO!!!!

Edit... Thanks BuzzBuzz, my bad. I jumped the gun on this... should have read the threads on this first. ;)
Will wait and see.
 
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Well, I'll take a look, but I think KIRO might end up on my ignore list.

I, too, am going to give them a chance...news outlets do tend to sensationalize in their teasers (how many times have you seen a news advertisement, said "oh, I really need to watch that", only to discover the story is an absolute flop and was a complete waste of your time?). That said, if they spin our comments such to make us look like "high tech freeloaders," KIRO will DEFINITELY end up on my ignore list.

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And this is from a very blue city/state. I guess Leaf and Volt owners are freeloaders too. Such poor journalism. We need to Broder KIRO!!!!

Again, let's wait to see what the story looks like...I'm hoping they are just hyping it to get people to watch it...
 
I, too, am going to give them a chance...news outlets do tend to sensationalize in their teasers (how many times have you seen a news advertisement, said "oh, I really need to watch that", only to discover the story is an absolute flop and was a complete waste of your time?). That said, if they spin our comments such to make us look like "high tech freeloaders," KIRO will DEFINITELY end up on my ignore list.

Again, let's wait to see what the story looks like...I'm hoping they are just hyping it to get people to watch it...


Here is the preview - it's hard to imagine the actual story going in any other direction:

Tuesday at 5: High tech freeloaders | www.kirotv.com
 
Well, just watched the story on KIRO. They definitely sensationalized it in the trailer. Frankly, not much substance in the story at all. It was a lot of fluff, complaining that the Tesla can cost up to $118,000, which adds up to almost $20,000 in tax breaks. They do address that the LEAF costs less and gets the same breaks, but don't really address that that fact, in an of itself, means that the tax breaks are NOT subsidizing "cool cars for rich people." The story seems to be pushing that the tax breaks are for the rich, when they are ACTUALLY for people who buy EVs, regardless of the cost of the EV. Overall, though, it wasn't as terrible as I was fearing.
 
Well said, buzzbuzz. I was a little harsher and hot-headed in the email I just sent to KIRO:

Hello:

I tried to send this email to the Investigation team, but the link was inoperable.


I am writing to express my dismay at your investigation of the WA state and federal tax credits afforded to electric vehicles broadcast on May 7, 2013. I hardly know where to begin.


First, there were interviews and film obtained by by KIRO being INVITED to a Tesla club meeting where we gathered to learn how to put our INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN to full use. We invited you to see that there are visionaries that care about the future and take risk and spend $ to achieve a better tomorrow. But instead you produced a hatchet job on tax credits.


And a hatchet job is what is was. There are two components. First, there is a standard $7500 tax credit that all completely electric vehicles get: that is includes Nisson's Leaf. Second, there is no sales tax on all electric vehicles in our state. These are put in place to incent buyers of new, unproven technology which might benefit both the State and it's citizens. You portrayed these as give aways to the rich. Do you think the folks buying a Leaf would agree? Do you think your line of discourse would inflame those who think giving tax breaks for electric vehicles is poor policy (I wonder if those same folks think it's OK to give much bigger tax breaks to oil companies?), thus making better TV? How awful, if true. I would get fired in my business if I did that. And possibly put in jail.


This is disingenuous reporting. Especially when you were invited as guests to a private gathering. To close, all I can say is that I now have more reason than ever to conclude that my choice of local news channel has been correctly limited to KOMO and KING.
 
I just watched it as well. The story was not as aggressive as the trailer and commercials leading up to the segment. It's on-line now btw. I missed them saying the tax credit was also for the Leaf, I'll go back and watch for that. While the statements by Dahl and Gov. Inslee were positive, they were also very brief and compared to the amount of negative statements they were almost insignificant. Overall a very slanted "Investigation". The Grey MS was ours videoed last Friday.
i will write the station with my input and also try to write to the opinion section of the local papers to point out all of the missing information, such as the amount of tax break for EV vs Oil companies. I hope you all do the same.
 
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I'm with you ThortsMD. They definitely singled out Tesla and I think that they misrepresented what Tesla stands for.

It seems like the reporter didn't even investigate the reasons why the Sales Tax incentives exist. I appreciated the statement that Gonernor Inslee made though. During my time as an environmental investigator I spent a great amount of time inspecting and sampling oil water separators, tank farms facilities, monitoring groundwater remediation projects and chasing down the source of petroleum discharges in our waterways.

I felt like I was doing a good thing when I invested in the first really viable electric vehicle so that everyone else could benefit from my investment in the future. The sales tax break did have a bearing on whether we took the leap or not.

I know of someone that uses less than 5 gallons of gas a year in their plug-in hybrid and they don't have to pay the $100 tab fee. They also fail to realize that we pay utility taxes on our electricity too.

I guess I'm going to have to give up watching the "Big Bang Theory" now. I vote with my feet and my money.

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I just watched it as well. The story was not as aggressive as the trailer and commercials leading up to the segment. It's on-line now btw. I missed them saying the tax credit was also for the Leaf, I'll go back and watch for that. While the statements by Dahl and Gov. Inslee were positive, they were also very brief and compared to the amount of negative statements they were almost insignificant. Overall a very slanted "Investigation". The Grey MS was ours videoed last Friday.
i will write the station with my input and also try to write to the opinion section of the local papers to point out all of the missing information, such as the amount of tax break for EV vs Oil companies. I hope you all do the same.

Don't forget to mention the tax break that Hummers got due to their weight. :wink:
Your car looked lovely, BTW.
 
Thanks, v12 tp 12v! I don't know how to include the quote and put my responses in, so pardon the mess here.

I was angry...and still am. I have been looking for a viable car for years to take advantage of the solar panels I installed earlier. I had a great car and got a Tesla for our kids (the fun was just an extra). But that misses the point: Everyone who drives an all EV gets the same consideration and tax breaks! Will they make a new episode when Gen III arrives?

I guess I'm going to have to give up watching the "Big Bang Theory" now. I vote with my feet and my money.

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That's the ONLY language they understand.

Don't forget to mention the tax break that Hummers got due to their weight. :wink:

What about millions in tax breaks for big oil every year?

In the promo they repeatedly said "a Tax giveaway" to Tesla...I assume they meant the loan. GGRR......these reporters must not have gone to WSU or other good broadcast school (right SuperCoug?) :cursing:

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I'm with you ThortsMD. They definitely singled out Tesla and I think that they misrepresented what Tesla stands for.

It seems like the reporter didn't even investigate the reasons why the Sales Tax incentives exist. I appreciated the statement that Gonernor Inslee made though. During my time as an environmental investigator I spent a great amount of time inspecting and sampling oil water separators, tank farms facilities, monitoring groundwater remediation projects and chasing down the source of petroleum discharges in our waterways.

I felt like I was doing a good thing when I invested in the first really viable electric vehicle so that everyone else could benefit from my investment in the future. The sales tax break did have a bearing on whether we took the leap or not.

I know of someone that uses less than 5 gallons of gas a year in their plug-in hybrid and they don't have to pay the $100 tab fee. They also fail to realize that we pay utility taxes on our electricity too.

I guess I'm going to have to give up watching the "Big Bang Theory" now. I vote with my feet and my money.

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Don't forget to mention the tax break that Hummers got due to their weight. :wink:
Your car looked lovely, BTW.