North Carolina announces its plan to tax hybrid and electric car owners to offset lost gas tax revenues.

North Carolina wants to join other states which are already drafting a bill to implement this. One instance is Virginia, alternative-fueled car owners will have to pay $64 a year which will be allocated to road repairs. Washington, New Jersey, Michigan, Texas and more.

Despite apprehensions received by the government from the car owners and other support groups, North Carolina and other states are firm on the plan to have everyone responsible in maintaining the road and so that the government will have enough funds to use for road constructions. A bill already passed the Senate and is now in the House for discussion. The proposal is to charge hybrid cars an annual fee of $50 and $100 for the electric cars. They expect to generate at least $1.5 million revenue per year.

Fifty-five percent of the state’s tax revenue comes from the gas taxes and if there will be fewer cars using gas, a significant budget cut will happen. As of April, the state has 719 electric cars and 27, 863 hybrid cars registered.

In other states, legislators are studying if mileage tax or usage tax may be possible for these cars although they haven’t figured out how they can measure the total mileage the car had traveled for taxing. In Oregon, they were planning to charge $1.55 per mile.

While legislators believed that the bill is fair enough since these drivers were using the road anyway and therefore should pay for it, many drivers find the decision disconcerting.

Ryan Turner, a networking staff in the University of North Carolina who also has an electric car, gave a statement in Associated Press saying that the bill sounds logical but may affect the government’s drive to promote the use of alternative-fueled cars.

"On its face, it's reasonable for electric owners to contribute toward road tax in some way," Turner said. "I think what's suspect is that, given all the issues we have in this state, given the state's woeful effort so far to promote electric vehicles as part of some statewide agenda, it is suspect that this vehicle tax is a priority given the small amount of the revenue it will bring in."