Senate conference committee directs study of taxing public EV charging, refines mileage-based fee expansion

A Senate transportation conference committee reviewed changes to the Senate's mileage-based user fee proposal and asked the commissioner of taxes to study options for generating transportation revenue from electricity sold at public electric vehicle chargers.

Committee staff walked members through technical edits to the EMBA draft, including lengthening the registration-to-inspection window to capture Vermont movers and newly purchased or leased vehicles, clarifying payment timing when mileage-reporting periods end within 60 days of registration renewal, and specifying that the commissioner must have odometer data to issue any credit when a default assessment is later corrected. Staff said the default assessment for missed inspections is currently set at $178 and that sections in the draft would set the flat/default rate at $375 and delete the existing cap. Staff also said the sections folding plug-in hybrid and battery-electric vehicles into the EMBA would take effect January 1, 2029, if adopted.

A senator on the committee argued the state should "recapture" revenue from public chargers and direct it to the transportation fund, calling retail charging "our gas pump" and estimating retail receipts from public chargers at "ballpark $400,000 or maybe less." Committee members and staff agreed the idea merits study but flagged practical complications: many retail sellers (for example, gas stations that operate chargers plus a convenience store) do not separate EV electricity sales in sales-tax filings, and charging-station business models can split responsibilities among station operators, charging networks and utilities for pricing and payment.

A committee member asked whether the phrase "so few of them" referred to charging-station filers; staff said the agency could identify roughly 10 filers that report as EV charging providers, and noted disclosure rules can limit public reporting when the taxpayer pool is small. On consumer protections, a committee member observed "there's a sticker on the machine that tells that they're in compliance," and staff said the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets'weights-and-measures function would verify whether a charger reports the kilowatt-hours it dispensed and would require visible pricing; that agency's role is accuracy and transparency, not tax enforcement.

Staff proposed a report directive: the bill language would ask 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 a range of options'including a per-kilowatt-hour fee, a tax in lieu of the existing 6% sales tax on those retail sales, or an additional surcharge'and to evaluate ease of implementation, anticipated administrative costs, potential challenges, and revenue projections at different rates. Staff said the study should identify other states that have implemented similar measures and return findings and recommendations to the transportation and tax committees next January.

Committee members emphasized the study should be narrowly scoped to the retail sale of electricity "through EV charging equipment available to the public," not all electricity generation or retail electricity sales. Members set a follow-up meeting for Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. to continue negotiations on the EMBA language and related items.

Next steps: staff will redraft the committee's conference language and circulate it to conferees; the tax-study directive requires an interim report next January to the transportation and tax committees.