Registration fee bill aimed at Florida electric vehicle owners over lost gas-tax dollars

ActionNewsJax.com News Staff
·1 min read
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Owning an electric car in Florida may result in an annual registration fee as high as $250 by the end of the decade if a new proposed bill is signed into law.

Florida electric vehicle owners would pay a registration fee aimed at what the bill claims would help make up for lost gas-tax dollars, under a bill proposed Tuesday by Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations Chairman Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater.

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The proposal (SB 28), filed for consideration during the 2024 legislative session, seeks to impose a yearly registration fee of $200 on electric vehicles that would be in addition to regular registration fees.

The annual cost would go up to $250 starting in 2029. An annual fee of $50 a year would also be imposed on plug-in hybrids.

The legislative session will begin January 9, 2024.

The Senate during the 2023 session unanimously approved a similar measure, but the bill wasn’t picked up by the House. Florida uses gas tax revenues to pay for transportation projects.

But a Senate staff analysis of the 2023 proposal said an increase in the use of electric vehicles could result in a 5.6 percent to 20 percent drop in “motor-fuel based revenue streams” by 2040.

The analysis said 31 states impose some form of registration fee on electric vehicles.

If passed, the proposed law would take effect July 1, 2024.

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