A majority of voters think electric vehicle drivers aren't paying their fair share to maintain state roadways, according to new polling commissioned by the Florida Transportation Builders Association.
Road construction and maintenance are partly funded by fuel taxes, which EV drivers do not pay. According to the survey, conducted by Cygnal, nearly three-quarters (73%) of voters say EV drivers should have to pay an annual registration fee to cover lost fuel tax revenues. Nearly the same amount (72%) say it's unfair that there isn't a fee in place already.
"Florida builds and maintains its road through a statewide gas tax, so as more and more Floridians choose to drive electric vehicles and purchase less gas, it presents a growing problem for our state," said Sally Patrenos, president of Floridians for Better Transportation.
"Without addressing this issue, transportation infrastructure investments in Florida will suffer. Florida voters recognize the unfairness of this current system — with electric vehicle owners benefiting from the use of roads without contributing to their expense — and clearly support Florida's leaders taking action to ensure all drivers are paying to use and maintain the transportation infrastructure we all share."
The Cygnal poll also found that 67% of Florida voters support using gas tax revenues to invest in transportation infrastructure, rather than for other purposes.
Further, 86% of those polled said they believe more money needs to be invested in transportation infrastructure improvements to make Florida's roads safer and easier to use as the state's population continues to grow and more vehicles travel on its roadways. Additionally, 75% of voters support building new highways to help alleviate traffic, improve commerce and connect regions.
"Floridians see how our state is growing, and they not only understand but strongly support investing in the transportation infrastructure needed to support that growth, ease congestion and maintain the safety of our roadways," Patrenos said. "Until another method of collecting fees to fund infrastructure development for use of our roads is developed, we support an annual fee on vehicles that currently pay nothing."
The Cygnal poll was conducted from Oct. 10-12. It has a sample size of 801 likely general election voters in Florida. The margin of error is +/- 3.32%.
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