From Rep. Ashley Hinson’s newsletter:
With the funnel week deadline, our work in the House Transportation committee finished on Tuesday. As chair of the committee, I’m proud that every single bill we passed was bi-partisan.
Arguably one of the most important bills we did was the Road Use Equity bill that I proposed and am managing.
Increased use of electric vehicles impacts the infrastructure of Iowa’s roads and bridges. However, these electric vehicles are not currently helping pay for their road usage as electric vehicles either use less gas or no gas. This means that electric vehicle owners are not paying the gas tax, which goes to help fund the infrastructure of Iowa’s roadways.
In order to create equity I introduced in Transportation Committee HSB 197, that ensures all vehicles pay their share. HSB 197 has three main parts based upon recommendations from Iowa DOT.
- There is a supplemental registration fee for electric vehicles that will be phased in over a three year period.
- The bill includes an excise fee of 2.6 cents per kilowatt hour is imposed on commercial electric fuel charging stations.
- The language proposes a 65 cent per gallon excise fee on hydrogen fuel in order to ensure that hydrogen powered cars also pay their share for using Iowa’s roadways.
HSB 197 is important as all vehicles using Iowa’s roadways should contribute to the construction and maintenance of the infrastructure. This bill creates an equitable solution to secure continued funding remains for Iowa’s roads and bridges.
I look forward to running this bill on the house floor soon.
