At the end of April the Palm Coast City Council learned that the city is facing a $52 million bill over five years if it is to keep its streets from deteriorating further, or failing in a few cases.
The city doesn’t have that kind of money. It is hunting for new revenue. Two possibilities: a utility tax, or a franchise fee levied on utilities and passed down to customers. Or both. They would appear on residents’ power bills and raise millions. Twice in the last 11 years the council considered adding them, only to face fierce public opposition. The proposals are again on the table.
The council is looking for alternatives. Among them: taxing electric vehicles, just as combustion-engine vehicles are taxed at the gas pump. The council is also looking at fees on electric vehicles, though in the end it may come down to the same thing. And either way, the revenue generated from taxing electric vehicles would be minimal compared to the city’s needed revenue.
Two council members have been pushing the matter especially: Theresa Pontieri and Ed Danko, the latter surprisingly so because of his uncompromising stance on new taxes: he’s vowed to drink antifreeze rather than support budgets with higher taxes. But he doesn’t see a levy on electric vehicles as a new tax.
“I am not supporting a new tax or increase,” he said, “this tax already exists at the fuel pump for automobiles, all I am suggesting is finding some formula to include EV’s since they use our roads just like gas powered vehicles do. There should be no free ride for EV’s.”
Danko and Pontieri brought up the subject during a budget workshop late last month. Dank was exploring having Palm Coast impose its own local tax on electric vehicles.
“We’re talking six cents per gallon on gas,” Danko said, referring to the so-called local-option sales tax that Flagler County is authorized to impose, and does, keeping that revenue local. But the revenue is small, and it’s not growing, because vehicles are becoming more fuel efficient–or going hybrid and electric.
“I don’t know quite how we do it,” Danko said of collecting revenue from EVs. “Maybe it’s a mileage thing. You report your mileage annually or something and we figure out a formula that would be equal to that six cents per gallon. But we have roads that are really becoming a problem and we have a bunch of electrical vehicles that put wear and tear on those roads and we haven’t collected a penny on that. That’s something we might need to look at. Because no pun intended, but they shouldn’t get a free ride.”
In 2014, the local-option gas tax generated $2.3 million countywide, of which $1.7 million went to Palm Coast. The state is estimating that Flagler County will generate $2.8 million for this year, of which $2 million will go to Palm Coast.
It only looks like an increase over 2014. In fact, in inflation adjusted dollars, Flagler County would have had to generate $3 million this year just to keep up with inflation. In reality, both Flagler County and Palm Coast are losing purchasing power when it comes to gas tax revenue, which is why neither government can rely on that source alone. There are not enough electric vehicles on local roads to make a significant impact on new revenue, even if a funding mechanism were devised.
Those mechanisms are devised by the state, not by local governments. Thirty-one states have already taken steps to add taxes on electric vehicles. Those range from $50 a year in Colorado to $75 in Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska to $100 in California, Illinois, Tennessee and Wisconsin to $200 a year in Georgia. Those are supplemental taxes to those already paid for regular licenses.
Currently Florida charges a licensing tax for every vehicle on the road. The tax does not make a distinction between electric and non-electric vehicles. As long as the vehicle is powered by something other than a person’s muscles, it is taxed. A bicycle is not taxed. A moped is. The difference in the licensing tax is determined by size. So a moped’s license tax is $5, a heavy truck is $1,322. The typical car’s license tax is $225.
Florida has no supplemental fee for electric vehicles. But the Florida Legislature has been trying.
Last spring Sen. Ed Hooper, the Palm Harbor (of Pinellas County) Republican, introduced Senate Bill 1070, calling for adding a $200 annual licensing tax for fully electric vehicles beginning this October, and rising to $250 starting in 2028. That would have placed Florida at the higher end of EV taxing.
The tax on hybrid vehicles would have been $50, rising to $100 in 2028. Low-speed electric vehicles like golf carts, which are popular in small towns like Flagler Beach and elderly pastures like The Villages, would have been required to register only every two years.
The Hooper bill was approved in three successive unanimous votes in Senate committees, and a 39-0 vote on the Senate floor on April 28, a rare feat of bi-partisanship. But it had no House companion. The bill died. It is very likely to be reintroduced next year, but Rep. Paul Renner, the House Speaker and Flagler County’s representative, would have to back it. He has not been an especially warm friend to green legislation.
“This would be a appropriate time to talk to both our our our speaker and our senator,” Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin said, referring to Renner and Sen. Travis Hutson, “because I know that Tallahassee is dealing with the issue. I do believe that the structure for the revenue sharing has to start from Tallahassee, and then we can massage it here locally.”
Though he might be more willing to back a bill purporting to generate revenue for infrastructure, the bill would have increased state revenue by only $37.1 million every year, and combined local revenue by $20.9 million every year, according to a legislative analysis. Flagler County’s share would have been in the tens of thousands of dollars, itself split between the county and its cities. It would not have been a substantial source of revenue.
Meanwhile, fuel taxes are levied on fuel consumption. The fewer miles cars travel, the less the revenue. The less gas cars consume, the less the revenue.
For every gallon of gas sold in Flagler, 34.25 cents is levied in state and local tax. Of that, just 6 cents is a local tax, and 73 percent of Flagler County’s share of gas tax money goes to Palm Coast.
The state establishes fuel and vehicle tax structures. But it does not control how a local government may generate revenue from utilities such as electricity. That’s where the utility tax or franchise fee come in. But those would be new taxes, even though their revenue would help defray the cost of maintaining palm Coast’s roads.
There may be other options, but not with the same kind of revenue potential. The city is considering adding a service charge at EV charging stations, and will likely do so at its own station at City Hall, currently a free service. On June 13 the chief sustainability and resiliency officer will make a presentation that will touch on that possibility. But the revenue would be more symbolic than substantial, absent a much vaster system of EV charging stations.
“Looking to the electric charging station may be an even broader approach to revenue because if we were to tax residents who drive electric vehicles, we would only capture our own folks,” Alfin said. “It would be good for those that are traversing through our area to catch them if they’re charging here as well.” He’s asked the city attorney to research surcharge possibilities. “Because I do know that there will be many more charging stations coming online.”
“But keep in mind a lot of people charge at home,” Danko said. In fact, most do, and by a wide margin, because the charging-station infrastructure beyond home is not readily built yet, and is not likely to mirror the path of gas stations: drivers of EVs can charge their car at work, at the mall, at restaurants, and of course at home, since charging stations may be built with less regulatory hassles than fossil-fuel stations.
“So I think we still need to account for the use on our roads,” Danko aid. “Because we need every penny we can get it this.”
David Schaefer says
It is amazing to me to see a price tag of $ 52 million. This city wastes thousands daily on useless crapwith gas prices higher here than Orlando something is wrong here……
Bradley Boyd says
Palm Coast Parkway has recently been rampaged by 100’s of fully loaded dump trucks loaded with sand head for beach replenishment. The roads and bridges actually vibrate and shift under the heavy loads, destroying designed road and bridge life spans, and certainly the quality of life.
White sand is a specification for the dunes, rather than cinnamon dredge sand 50 ft from the shore.
Get your heads out of your butts and stop this destructive and costly practice.
What it comes down to is who is more coveted, Turtles or the hardworking taxpaying residents trying to enjoy their shrinking lifetime savings on this kind of wasteful legislation.
How about a turtle tax on all beach front dwellings??
pete says
Hold on tight, there at it again.
R.S. says
What a world! We’re burning up in climate change, but it’s “Drill, baby drill! Open the Arctic now since it’s melted for drilling.” Some folks worry about energy and install their own system, but it’s “Pay ’em a wholesale penney for what they contribute and charge ’em retail when they buy back at night” AND “Let’s charge ’em $25 a month for generating electricity for the commonweal even though we, the electric companies, are selling what they generate at tremendous profit margins.” Now we’re going after the ecological minded by taxing e-vehicles. Taking taxes from charging station companies? Why not! Taxing car owners directly? What else is that but a tax on liberal responsibility? With putting more and more brakes on the system, no wonder we’re bound to hell in handbasket! What we should do is to encourage system change by permitting the ecologically responsible to benefit and tax the hell out of the recalcitrant troglodytes who persist in their pollution of the environment by all fossil sources: plastic and fuel.
jake says
So let’s get this straight, you want all the benefits, with none of the responsibility. You want to dictate how the rest of us live, but don’t want to pay your fair share. I’ll make it simple for you, every year all EV owners, when renewing their registration (yes, a tax), must physically have their milage read at a state operated motor vehicle service center, so they can pay a reasonable amount of road tax. I also propose a, disposal tax, charged to all EV owners when their battery needs to be replaced, much like a tire disposal tax, you pay when getting new tires. This tax will also be charged (prorated) when the EV is traded in, or sold. You may think this is not fair and equitable to those that think they are being “liberal responsible”, however, to us “recalcitrant troglodytes”, we think it works just fine.
Tax on Liberal Resposibility? says
You do realize the the strain on our power grid by all these Ford F150 Lightnings, Leafs plug in hybrids and teslas is remedied by burning more fossil fuels right? where do Fiscally responsible Liberals think all the electricity to recharge these EV cars comes from exactly? You see any wind or solar farms around here? We burn coal, heat water create steam spin turbines to make this power, there is no free lunch! The EV tires roll on the same street underneath heavy Lithium battery packs and contribute just as much wear and tear on our asphalt as gas cars is the point of the article. Of course EV owners should pay their fair share especially with the upcoming Biden EV mandates forcing people to buy these cars.
Sunshiner says
Not true at all. Most of the electricity produced by FPL, and even the entire country, comes from renewable energy sources. Get out of town and look to the sides of the interstates in Florida where you’ll see millions of acres of solar panels.
FlaglerLive says
The commenter is incorrect. Only 11 percent of FPL’s electricity is produced by solar. 76 percent is produced by natural gas, a fossil fuel, and 11 percent by nuclear energy. Nationally, fossil fuels account for 60 percent of electricity production. There are not “millions of acres” of solar panels in Florida. In the entire nation, only 618,000 acres have been turned into solar farms–compared to the nearly 26 million acres leased by the oil and gas industry. Do not use this site to spread disinformation. Thanks.
DaleL says
FlaglerLive is correct concerning FPL’s electricity generation fuels/sources. However, burning natural gas to produce electricity to propel an EV releases far less carbon dioxide and pollutants than burning gasoline or diesel to propel a conventional internal combustion vehicles.
Further, gasoline is a dangerous fire risk. Gasoline powered cars are nearly 100 times more likely to catch fire than an EV. https://www.autoweek.com/news/a38225037/how-much-you-should-worry-about-ev-fires/
A final point, directed to Tax on L…, is that EVs will not replace regular internal combustion powered vehicles anytime soon. In January 2023, just 7.1% of new car registrations in the USA were EVs. The average life of a car, according to Consumers Reports, is 8 years and/or 150,000 miles. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna12040753 As such, the gradual increase in EVs will NOT overload the electrical grid. There are tax incentives to buy electric vehicles, but there are no “Biden EV mandates forcing people to buy these cars.”
Sherry says
@R.S. Right On! But, God forbid we require BILLIONAIRES to pay their fair share of taxes!
Celia Pugliese says
Lest demand that we split with the county the original additional half cent gas tax which the county without much fanfare decided to keep a larger share lately…as reported and city of Palm Coast didn’t do a thing to oppose it… City has to maintain and pave all our roads, nit the county.
Robjr says
This county/city has one “gubment” too many. One has to go.
Total BS says
HA HA there is that Green Energy for you! EV’s are not green. If you look at the scam of it all, you will see why. It is called Government Control PERIOD.
Darryl Duke says
How about clawing back the millions funneled to the drunkin pole leese annually? All those cars, tanks and RVs tear up our roads too ya know. In one of the least crime ridden counties in the country. Bunch of scared ass deplorables constantly screaming about their freedumbs yet quick to make sure Roscoe P Coltrain gets every dime he ever asks for.
STANLEY says
Just keep building more homes and flooding our roads with heavy traffic,we don’t have enough roads now for all the traffic we have. How are we going to build new roads when we can’t take care of what we have now ?
Absolutely Ridiculous says
Your revenue is down because people buy gas in the counties north and south of Flagler as it is 20 – 50 cents a gallon cheaper.
The city has also wasted more money than should be permitted by the taxpayers. You also do stupid things like screw up the garbage contract which costs all the residents money.
Jason says
Exactly. I purposely drive down to Sam’s or Bucees because gas and diesel has been almost 75cents cheaper there in a regular basis. Volusia and St John’s counties are getting all the gas tax revenue because Flagler has the highest prices and I’ve had my card skimmed more than once in town so I just refuse to buy gas in palm coast period.
tulip says
When we buy gas, we pay a tax on every gallon. Why not pay tax on EV’s also? When you charge the car at home, there would be no tax, unless the home chargers could be tweaked to charge a tax. However, if an ev is charged at home, the price of that goes on your electric bill. Also , people that travel through our city should be tax if they use our chargers, such as they do if they buy gas in Palm Coast. Just think, if a lot of people never complained about the traffic cameras, we would still have them and there would have been lots of revenue from that for the roads to fixed, because I would think deterioration of roads is a safety hazard and would qualify for usage of the money from traffic fines. Now those same people are going to pay a tax every single year which will be far more than traffic fines because most drivers don’t get traffic tickets on steady basis. Just wait til all the electric grids have to be updated to handle all the extra electricity being used. We will all have electric bills like we’ve never seen before. So, in summary electric chargers, whether home use or public use should be tweaked to charge the tax just like at the gas pumps. That way, non residents traveling through a city would also pay the tax. JMO
Jimbo99 says
I called this a good decade back, heavier EV’s wear out the roads with regenerative braking. They don’t pay for a gasoline tax that would ever repave a single road. Electric bills will have to soar & solar won’t nearly offset the rate increases. Guess what ICE vehicle owners, you’ll get gouged for gasoline & electricity. The goverment has no clue on how to charge proportionate & fair share & when EV’s are the freeloaders for street repairs the revenue lost from gasoline has to replaced by, you guessed it solar & electricity. They’re going to charge us all for the sun to rise & set 10-14 hours every day. Careful there, there will one day be an Oxygen tax and you will pay for every breath you take. Some expert will claim that you’re CO2 emissions is warming the planet excessively. That one will be the Fauci of fresh air & air quality. The EPA is already set up as the agency to have it’s expert. Biden-Harris of course will find a way to charge you for it. Look at them, the smartest minds in Government with zero clue, but they will declare a solution that involves everyone paying for it, except for the undocumented.
The Sour Kraut says
Tax by the mile?!! Sure, just as long as you are only counting the miles I drive within Palm Coast! If I drive an ICE vehicle to Miami I pay the gas tax in the area where I fill up. Danko wants me to pay for all the miles I drive regardless of where that happens to be? Never going to happen. The courts will see to that!
Stephen says
I thought Palm Coast had a plan about 10 years ago to finance and pave 50 miles of road a year. Why would city leaders let that change? Please leave my power bill alone. It is high enough and also my water bill. Thank You.
They are smoking in the shower says
What a stupid idea, that’s it that the best they can do?
What a disappointment to see that come from Councilwoman Pontieri.
Danko you’re a lier. No taxes no increases, you are not a conservative republican!
I can wait to vote your ass out of here…..
Jason says
I own an EV. In my opinion the fuel tax needs to be removed and instead tacked into tires and adjusted based on tread life and type of tire. This would ensure all vehicles pay as all vehicles currently need tires. And EVs typically go through tires faster than IC vehicles do. This ensures we all pay our fair share as we should to use the public roads.
DaleL says
The idea of taxing tires is not that bad. Heavy vehicles, performance vehicles, and vehicles driven more miles, all go through tires faster. However, tires last for years and the sticker shock of replacing the tires could result in people keeping their tires past the point of safety. Also, the value of tires could go up so much as to promote a black market demand. That could result increased theft and smuggling.
The fairest would be tax vehicles based on weight and miles driven. This could replace the fuel tax for conventional internal combustion powered vehicles. Odometer checks would be needed for registration or alternately each year. Light weight vehicles which are not driven very many miles would have a low tax. Heavy vehicles that are driven a lot, would have a proportionately higher tax. For example, a Chevy Suburban, 5,800 pounds, would be taxed more per mile driven, than a Tesla Model Y, 4,400 pounds.
R.S. says
I like that idea. Now let’s implement that on garbage pick-up also! Shouldn’t be much more difficult to measure than miles driven and weight of automobile, no? ;-)
Jim says
All I see is the government looking for another way to put money in their possession. Where’s the actual plan and implementation of road repair in this city? And if it does exist, is the city actually complying with the plan?
Money has been collected for years specifically to “repair and replace roads”. I wonder if it’s actually used for that…..
Citizen Woke says
The State of Florida, on behalf of Governor DeSantis, just appropriated millions of tax dollars for legal fees to support its efforts to keep Florida “woke” free. Now we are going to get brand-new taxes needed to maintain our crumbling roads. Watch them build a whole new bureaucracy to collect road repair taxes. Electric vehicles must be on Desantis’ “woke” list.