Caven Wade

(UM Legislative News Service) A bill that would add a yearly fee to all electric vehicles in the state moved one step closer to becoming law last week.

Rep. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis, is sponsoring House Bill 60 which would add an annual fee to all electric vehicles in the state to substitute for Montana's gas tax.

The bill passed the House of Representatives on 92-8 on Jan. 25, and following a second reading vote of 38-12 in the Senate on Mar. 14, it will be evaluated by the Senate Finance and Claims Committee before it can be sent back to the Senate for a final vote. 

“Now we all know we drive on our roads, we’ve heard about some of that already today, and our roads do fall apart,” Sen. Mark Noland, R-Bigfork, said when presenting the bill to the Senate. “So what’s fair for us who use our gasoline cars, diesel trucks – we get assessed an allotment at the gas pump. There is nothing to be charged for our wonderful electric cars.”

Annual fees on electric vehicles would range from $130 to $1,000 depending on weight of the vehicle and calculations on how much gas tax that car would pay yearly if it had a combustion engine.

During committee hearings on the bill, the Montana Environmental Information Center raised questions about the cost of the fees and the math that was used to calculate them. 

The group has opposed the bill throughout the process, arguing that the fees were way too high in comparison to other states. Several of the group’s representatives pointed to Utah, which has a $90 fee and North Dakota, which has a $120 fee, both lower than the proposed fee in Montana.

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