War on (Hybrid) Car! Virginia Drivers Start An Online Petition Urging Governor Bob McDonnell To Stop Hybrid Tax
The latest transportation bill from Virginia legislature (HB2313), signed by Gov. Bob McDonnell has got a lot of Hybrid vehicle owners miffed. Under the new regulations, drivers of hybrid vehicles would have to pay a $100 annual fee. So, the irate hybrid owners and other opponents of this measure have have started an online petition urging the governor to veto the fee now has more than 4,000 signatures (hoping to get to 10,000 by end of March) . WUSA9’s Monika Samtani has done a nice report covering this issue. Check it out.
Critics are pointing out that :
The Hybrid Tax is unfair. There are many non-hybrid vehicles that get better MPG than hybrids. They don’t pay the tax. This indiscriminately picks on one technology.
Hybrid owners already pay their fair share. Hybrids already cost 10% more than other cars and there is no personal property tax phaseout for vehicles worth more than $20,000.
The Hybrid Tax will barely generate revenue. There are only 92,000 hybrids in Virginia – 1.3% of the entire vehicle fleet.
The Hybrid Tax picks on Northern Virginia. 83% of Virginia clean fuel plates are registered in Northern Virginia. This is one more example of Northern Virginia being used as a statewide piggy bank.
Hope this will prompt Gov. Bob McDonnell to reconsider penalizing the hybrid vehicle owners.
