When Governor Christie signed a 23-cent gas tax hike into law in 2016, Save Jerseyans, Trenton’s political class hailed the deal as the only way to rescue the state’s transportation trust fund (TTF).
“I wasn’t crazy about the deal,” then-Democrat President Steve Sweeney said at the time. “We couldn’t go 18 or 15 more months without the Transportation Trust Fund. We couldn’t do it. Our roads are crumbling and our people are out of work.”
The new formula (which involves automatic tax increases based upon gas tax revenue) isn’t fixing the problem. Several years later, the quality of New Jersey’s road system continues to fetch poor marks. Is Phil Murphy about to make it even worse? Probably; the math isn’t complicated and pretty darn grim.
Governor Murphy is pushing hard to see 330,000 electric vehicles on New Jersey’s roads by the year 2025. Just this week, the NJBPU announced another $1 million for EV chargers.
“Today’s grant awards will greatly improve EV infrastructure in tourist destinations across our state, encouraging EV-owning New Jerseyans and out-of-state tourists to visit these areas and improve the local economy while contributing to our battle against climate change,” Murphy claimed in a statement. “With forward-thinking initiatives like this, New Jersey continues to lead the nation in building a green economy.”
Who’s going to pay for Murphy’s “green economy” infrastructure when people stop buying gasoline at New Jersey gas stations? Each new electric vehicle translates to about $162.60 less in state gas tax revenue on an annual basis. With 49,000 electric cars on the Garden State’s roads at the moment, that’s $8 million in lost revenue as it is. 330,000 EVs would result in over $50 million in lost gas tax revenue.
The price tag keeps rising the deeper you look, folks.
New Jersey EV owners can also receive up to $5,000 per vehicle in direct state incentives. But wait… there’s more! EVs are exempt from NJ Sales Tax. That’s a $3,600 per vehicle tax break which, for 330,000 electric cars, the sales tax revenue loss would total OVER one billion dollars.
Are electric cars the future? Maybe. Until that future arrives, someone in Trenton needs to start figuring out how to make the numbers add up. Right now it’s not even close.
