Hybrid vehicle owners
paying higher taxes
The state of West Virginia charges regular hybrid vehicles a $100 annual fee on the assumption that they are avoiding gas taxes. This is wrong on many levels.
It is akin to Dominion Energy charging households extra for adding insulation, or the state charging nonsmokers for not buying cigarettes.
The state should not discriminate between vehicles based on their internal workings. Furthermore, it is an overreach and it is excessive taxation.
My hybrid vehicle returns about 38 mpg. A similarly sized vehicle using conventional internal combustion technology would return about 27 mpg. Over 15,000 miles, the difference is about 160 gallons.
West Virginia has a gas tax of about 35.7 cents per gallon. So the annual difference in taxes is $57, not $100. Furthermore, a hybrid vehicle has a higher purchase price and so the owner of a hybrid vehicle pays more at time of purchase and, on an annual basis, is levied a higher property tax.
If the hybrid premium is $5,000, then at time of purchase the owner is paying $300 more and on an annual basis is paying $30-$40 more yearly. In other words, when you take into account already existing state sales and property taxes, the owners of hybrid vehicles were already paying the equivalent in overall taxes as the owners of conventional vehicles.
Now, with the state adding these new annual fees, hybrid vehicle owners are paying higher taxes overall than everyone else. This is unfair and excessive.
Vincent Kang
Morgantown
Fleischauer has done
a lot for Mon County
I want to thank Delegate Barbara Fleischauer for organizing this trip to Canada so our citizens will be able to buy their much needed insulin, and I’m sure she will be planning more trips to Canada so our citizens can buy other medications.
No one ,especially seniors, should have to choose between food or medication.
Fleischauer is a devoted delegate and has proposed many bills that have helped Monongalia County. She has spent countless hours as our delegate working for all of us. May God always bless her and bring her good health. I support her 100%.
Carol Ann Miller
Morgantown
