Be careful what you wish for

I felt compelled to weigh in on the newly proposed Illinois electric vehicle registration fee, which is intended to generate transportation infrastructure revenue in the absence of a gas tax. I have owned an electric vehicle for just over five years now, and yes, I do enjoy the lower registration fee and I did benefit from the Illinois EPA credit and federal rebate respectively. However, it's not an entirely free ride, I do pay increased electricity bills to charge my vehicle, which does in turn provide increased tax revenue to the state.

I do understand the dilemma, though, and in fact I would be willing to pay more in annual vehicle registration to help make up the revenue shortfall. But the $1,000, nearly 60-fold increase makes no rational sense. To be fair, it should be based on average mileage and mpg figures, which are approximately 13,500 miles and 25 mpg nationally, Illinois has lower average annual mileage.

Using these values along with the proposed increase in electric vehicle registration and gas tax, the electric vehicle registration would be approximately $240 annually. Even though I wouldn't be happy about the increase, at least I couldn't argue about its fairness.

The irony here is that as more fuel-efficient and alternative-fuel vehicles hit the road, this issue will continue to arise. I implore our state lawmakers to spend more time and effort looking for ways to cut costs, create value, and conserve, rather than ways to continually raise taxes. Don't get me going on the graduated tax rate proposal …

Douglas Hamilton

Arlington Heights