Electric Car Buyers Could Get a ‘Jolt’ from the Government

If you’re thinking of buying an electric car to save money on gas you may want to think of the additional tax you may be paying for owning one.

State Senator James Whelan wants to tax electric cars by the mile to pay for road maintenance. But the proposal has a catch: As it's written, electric car owners would pay more than if they paid the state's current set of gas taxes, which total 14.5 cents a gallon.

In the bill, S-2531 electric and alternative-fueled vehicles would be charged a fee of 0.00839 cents per mile traveled. The bill would apply to all-electric plug-ins, not hybrids.

So what’s the point of finding ways to save money if the government is just going to take your savings and then some. Maybe they actually like our dependency on gas?