On a unanimous, 70-0 vote, the House has endorsed legislation to dump a $75 per year surcharge on gas hybrid cars, like the Toyota Prius, that lawmakers enacted two years ago. The fee would remain in place for plug-in hybrids; the bill also wouldn’t change the $140 per year surcharge that lawmakers imposed on plug-in electric vehicles. The surcharges came as part of a transportation funding package that included a 7-cent increase in the gas tax, with the idea that electric and hybrid vehicles wouldn’t pay the increase but still use the roads. However, that didn’t take into account the fact that gas hybrids are powered only by gas, so their owners do pay the tax.

HB 20 still needs passage in the Senate and the governor’s signature to become law.