Legislation to repeal an unpopular $75 annual fee on hybrid vehicles that state lawmakers passed last year may be dead for this year, unless House Transportation Chairman Joe Palmer belatedly decides to give the Senate-passed bill a hearing. The bill, SB 1311, passed the Senate on Feb. 24.

Instead of scheduling a hearing, Palmer introduced a different bill, which would combine removal of the hybrid fee with a five-year, phased-out elimination of gas tax funding for the Idaho State Police – a proposal that, on its own, was handily defeated in the Senate earlier in the session. In both Palmer’s new bill, HB 624, and the earlier Senate version, no replacement source of funding was proposed for ISP. The highway fund provides $16.4 million a year to ISP, 21.6 percent of its budget.

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said she told Palmer straight-out that the move wouldn’t fly in the Senate. “I said, ‘I’m shooting the hostage,’” she said. “You either think it’s a good idea, or it’s not a good idea.” She added, “It’s his choice.”

Palmer said earlier that he was working on a broader registration bill to replace the hybrid-fee repeal bill. “It’d definitely come down,” he said of the hybrid fee, “if we can figure something out.” Palmer said this afternoon, "I'm not sure yet" whether he'll schedule a hearing.

House Revenue & Taxation Committee Chairman Gary Collins, R-Nampa, said the combo bill, HB 624, which was introduced in his committee, is dead. “I just agreed to introduce it, is all I did,” Collins said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s not going anywhere this year.” Asked about the hybrid fee, Collins said of Palmer: “He’s got that bill. I don’t have that bill.”

Palmer said he's still holding out hope for HB 624, though Collins informed him yesterday it wouldn't get a hearing. "It'll be done when we sine die," Palmer said. "I'm not giving up." 

Lawmakers are pushing to adjourn this year’s session this week. The Transportation Committee has no meetings scheduled at this point; it is “at the call of the chair.” Palmer said, "There's so many things that are in play right now."

Keough told the Senate that the hybrid fee was enacted based on data showing that hybrids got much better gas mileage than non-hybrid vehicles. But the technology has changed since that data was compiled, and today there are non-hybrids that get just as good or better mileage than some hybrids. The idea was that when lawmakers raised Idaho’s gas tax last year by 7 cents per gallon to pay for road and bridge repairs, drivers of electric cars and hybrid vehicles wouldn’t pay their fair share of the additional burden. Keough said that premise turned out to be "faulty."

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