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Letter: Electric cars need to pay for their electricity

To the Editor:

This is Norm Benson from Fraser. I saw the picture of the electric car charging stations in Winter Park, and I had to comment on it.

In the caption it states that the stations will be free, and will cost the Town about two, three dollars per charge. This prompts me to ask, will Winter Park now buy the fuel for my vehicles at the Quick Stop? No, I didn’t think so.



I know that a similar situation exists in Kremmling, and maybe in other places in Grand County.

It is my humble opinion that these charging areas should be put in by private enterprise, like a gas station, or a hotel.



The real point of this letter is that even if the towns got grants, that there should be a kilowatt hour charge, AND most importantly there needs to be a formula developed that charges Federal, State, and whatever local taxes there are!

Governor Hickenlooper was on radio explaining that highway fuel taxes haven’t been raised in many years, vehicles get much better fuel economy nowadays, and with whatever inflation there has been, the Highway User Funds are stretched to the max! This is one of the few arguments of Hickenloopers where I find myself on his side. Take my cars for instance, I drive a Dodge Pickup that gets eighteen to twenty two MPG and my VW diesel gets forty plus MPG. Compare that to my 1972 Ford at eleven MPG. It is evident that I am not paying as much per mile as I did in the Seventies!

In Colorado we have “TABOR” which came about as a result of politicians that never saw a tax they wouldn’t pass, but one of the down falls of TABOR is that all tax increases have to go to a public vote. I think this is good! Unattended politicians are economically challenged!

What I am getting at is that the folks that have “electric” cars need to pay for their electricity, and Highway User funds. If they have a charger in their home they will pay for the kilowatt hours, but there needs to be a way to collect Highway Taxes also!

The Towns need to prod private business to install these chargers. While the car charges, hopefully the drivers spend money for a hotel, a meal, or beads and trinkets!

Norm Benson

Fraser


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