Conference committee reviews mileage-based user fee expansion and orders study of EV charger electricity tax options

Members of a joint House–Senate transportation conference committee reviewed the senate’s proposed changes to a mileage-based user fee and agreed to commission a study on taxing electricity sold at public electric vehicle charging stations to support the transportation fund.

Presenter said the senate proposal preserves the senate findings in the first three pages and makes several technical and substantive changes beginning on page 4. The presenter described clarifications to registration and inspection rules to capture vehicles newly registered in Vermont and a payment-timing change allowing a mileage charge with a reporting period that ends within 60 days of registration renewal to be paid at the next subsequent renewal, or on sale or termination of the vehicle.

The presenter described a default-assessment mechanism for owners who miss their end-of-period inspection and said the draft clarifies the commissioner would need sufficient odometer data (an initial odometer reading) to grant a credit rather than allowing credits without inspection data. Transition provisions would permit credits for road-usage charges or EV infrastructure fees paid during the transition if required annual safety inspections were completed.

The proposal would expand coverage to plug-in electric vehicles (plug-in hybrid and battery-electric vehicles) with an expansion the presenter said would take effect on 01/01/2029. The presenter also said the draft removes a previously stated cap and changes the flat/default-rate language (the transcript contains inconsistent figures, discussed below), and that the draft would repeal the infrastructure fee that had applied to plug-in hybrids.

On revenue, a committee member urged recapturing sales-tax revenue generated by electricity sold at public charging stations and asked the Tax Department to study mechanisms to direct that revenue to the transportation fund. The presenter read draft study language that would direct the commissioner of taxes, in consultation with the secretary of transportation and the public utility commission (and potentially the department of public service), to examine options for generating transportation-fund revenue from the retail sale of electricity through EV charging stations available to the public. The study language listed potential options including a per-kilowatt-hour fee, a tax on the retail sale of electricity in lieu of the existing sales tax, a surcharge in addition to sales tax, and other options at the commissioner's discretion; it would require assessment of administrative costs, implementation challenges, revenue projections for different rates, and examples from other states, with a report due next January to the transportation and tax committees.

Committee members highlighted implementation complications. Several noted that many gas stations both sell fuel and operate chargers and often do not separate sales reporting by product, making it difficult to redirect the existing 6% sales tax without new data collection or a different mechanism. The presenter and members discussed that charging-station operators typically set retail prices while payment networks and utilities may handle billing or energy supply, and that weights-and-measures checks (for visible price and kilowatt-hour displays) and tax enforcement are separate regulatory functions.

The committee agreed the Tax Department-led study should examine practical implementation details and administrative feasibility and include consultation with the transportation secretary and relevant regulators. No formal vote or final policy decisions were recorded; members set follow-up scheduling to continue drafting and hoped to have proposals back for further committee consideration next week.

Quotes in context: Presenter read the study instruction: "the commissioner shall examine the potential, of generating revenue for the transportation fund through a charge on the retail sale of electricity sold through, EVSE available to the public." A committee member summarized the intent bluntly: "my intent is obviously just recoup the 6%."

Notes on numeric inconsistency: the transcript refers at one point to a change that would "increase to $375" and later refers to a "default rate of $3.75." The record provided to the committee contains both figures; the correct numeric rate is not specified in the transcript and should be confirmed in the official bill text before any reporting of the exact dollar amount.

Next steps: Committee members asked the Tax Department and transportation staff to draft study details and implementation options and to report back to the committees (target date: next January). Members scheduled additional working sessions to finalize language and hoped to resume consideration on Tuesday.