I am a taxpayer in the Town of Easton. I am also the owner of two gasoline powered vehicles for which I currently pay almost $4.00 per gallon for regular grade fuel. The price per gallon of gas includes a 47 cent per gallon state gas tax and an 18 cent per gallon federal gas tax. Both taxes are collected to help fund the building and maintenance of roads that are used by everyone who drives vehicles, including drivers of electric vehicles. These electric vehicle drivers do NOT pay gas taxes.
I am very concerned to learn that at a recent Town Council meeting, it was announced that the town will be paying the electric bill for free electric vehicle charging stations. At that same meeting, Council member David Montgomery asked which line item in the current budget is to be used to pay for these electric bills. The response from the town manager was it is not a budgeted item.
After a suggestion was made to close the charging stations, no further action was taken after the mayor said she needed two months to see if there was a solution to convert the charging stations from free to user paid. As a result, taxpayers of Easton will be paying approximately $1,800 to Easton Utilities over two months for charging stations to be available for free to EV owners until the mayor finds a “solution” and Council acts on it.
This kind of government giveaway using taxpayer dollars for “free” programs and services is what I have come to expect from our government in Washington DC. We should not expect or tolerate it in Easton. We should never use tax dollars to subsidize those in a position to purchase electric vehicles. If they have the money to purchase and maintain them, they can and they should pay for the costs of operating them.
There are much larger questions that need to be answered to ensure the best decisions are made going forward on this matter by our elected officials at Easton Town Hall. Those questions include:
Why were the projected monthly power costs for the EV charging stations not included in the town’s budget, a budget that is subject to review and approval by the Town Council?
Why does our mayor need two months to determine if there is a way to convert the EV charging stations from free to user paid?
Why was this determination not researched by our previous mayor and/or town staff before the current EV charging stations were installed?
What will be the costs of converting the current EV charging stations to be user-fee based?
Can a conversion be done by retrofitting the current EV charging stations or must the current stations be removed and replaced?
If so, what will the projected costs to remove the old stations, purchase the new ones and install them?
Is there Council approved money for a conversion or replacement in the budget (proposed and Council approved)?
Why can’t the current EV charging stations be shut down immediately until these operational questions are answered?
Is it fair for Easton taxpayers to provide free EV charging stations for all EV owners regardless of whether they are Easton residents, Talbot County residents outside of Easton, Eastern Shore residents outside of Easton or visitors/tourists from the western shore and other points west and north of Easton who pass regularly through our community? Granted some of these visitors and tourists spend money in Easton, but the revenue they generate for the town government is not as much as one might assume. For example, none of the state sales tax collected by businesses in Easton is remitted back to the Town of Easton.
Why is the town offering a free EV charging station when there are other EV charging stations available in the area, including a supercharger at the Royal Farms on Ocean Gateway at Dutchman’s Lane?
Easton taxpayers deserve answers to all these questions before any further discussions, deliberations and decisions are made by the Town Council on this matter.
Anything less is a slap in the face to all Easton residents who drive gasoline powered vehicles; many of whom may be experiencing challenges in paying their rent, mortgage, property taxes, grocery bills, utility bills, health insurance bills, credit card bills, and bills for other basic living expenses.
It is especially disrespectful to those in Easton living on fixed incomes or modest incomes who are enduring an inordinate burden from high inflation rates on all their living expenses.
Now is the time to pull the plug on a poorly conceived, poorly evaluated, poorly executed, unfair, and unnecessary program.
David Reel is a public affairs/public relations consultant who serves as a trusted advisor on strategy, advocacy, and media matters who resides in Easton.
Reed Fawell 3 says
“At that same meeting, Council member David Montgomery asked which line item in the current budget is to be used to pay for these electric bills. The response from the town manager was it is not a budgeted item.”
David Reel’s article is excellent.
Someone or more should be fired over this.
In addition, someone or more ought to fired by reason of the 2.5 years of wasted time and expense over the absurdly illegal Poplar Hill project, a project that likely would have gone forward absent public outcry.
Where are the leaders in the town of Easton political establishment, save for newly elected David Montgomery who talks straight and lives in the real world? Presumably, no one would have known about this irresponsible act had not this brand new board member asked a simple and obvious question.
This is very revealing. And is is a very good reason not to vote for the prior mayor who wants to chair the Board, and it raises questions as to the other candidate as well.
MaggieDanels says
He has asked the questions that everyone wants answers too. 2 months is too long. Cut them off now and let them use any other facility that isn’t paid by taxpayers. Why was this began in the first place. I wish the working taxpayers would stand together in Talbot and DC. Something for Nothing
That’s why we have such. Mess
Michele La Rocca says
I 100 percent agree!
Kathleen Carroll says
As a resident of Talbot County and the owner of a gas powered vehicle, I have no problem with the county providing free charging stations for electric vehicles. If the cost is $900 a month, that is only $10,800 per year. According to a recent Census estimate, there are approximately 37.250 residents of the country. That works out to just under 29 cents per year per resident. I think most people can afford 29 cents per year to help make our environment cleaner.
Hal De Bona says
Kathleen, do you not see the slippery slope? 29 cents is NOT the point!
Joanne Harwood says
David Reel’s article is excellent. Well thought out. Great operational questions and financial concerns. Thank you, Mr. Reel.
Ralph Walker says
Easton utilities is a great company for reliable service and services many areas outside the town limits. Also many I know use the yearly budget plan which is determined every Oct.and helps all with usage. Not every old and long time residents are not part of the so-called Hamptons of the Eastern Shore.
How are we going to see what this electric car nonsense is going to be factured into our budget.
When you approach 90 years
Life is not a bowl of chocolates.
We pay enough for gas and their taxes. I can only hope that someday I will see those who want to control us will have some common sense.
Michael Roman says
Most public car charging stations ask for a credit card for the charge. Can these charging stations be converted to accept credit cards?
Martha Suss says
Yes I would guess they can. But they they need to turn them off until this happens.
Jeff Effinget says
I could not agree more with Mr. Reel. Besides the unfairness of free charging many Ev drivers receive a tax credit for their purchase and, as noted, avoid paying highway usage taxes (fuel tax).
Many Ev drivers are probably unaware of the fact that their car is helping to drive the final nail into the coffin of Taiwan. Many of the materials used in these cars and their batteries come from the People’s Republic of China. Ev drivers may feel that they’re doing a good thing by driving such a vehicle, but the unintended consequences are enormous.
Danna Murphy Murden says
Why were the charging stations free to begin with? I don’t see why takes 2 months to decide what to do. Shut them down immediately until they are for pay. Not a novice amount but the real amount that it takes to use them like your household electric bill plus the cost of the machines ( gas stations don’t get the pumps for free). Every homeowner should be demanding free electric bills till this is settled. Has anyone every heard of Weights & Measures it governs that scales, gas pumps and anything that measures products that are sold are accurate but I guess that doesn’t apply here because the town is giving it away. UNBELIEVABLE !
Ellen Taggert says
David Reel please run for Town Council President!
Thank you for sharing your intelligence with us.
Hal De Bona says
100% agreement with Mr. Reel. Thank you
Jan Bohn says
Brilliant article and spot on. Thank you David Montgomery for bringing this up!!!
Lynn Randle says
Thank you for finding a new contributor to give your readers greater balance to our local news!
Joe Guiffre says
I’m addition ➕ to the points and questions offered by Mr. Reel, I would like to ask why a local government would even consider going into a new business enterprise that competes with the private sector? That private sector is already responding to the market.
It strikes me as fundamentally unfair for governments to tax the people with whom they compete.
I have a small background in the disposal of solid waste. Who will pay for and where will the used batteries from electric cars be discarded in an environmentally safe way? All of us? Or the chosen few who have already been subsidized by all the taxpayers?
jeff morton says
Just to make things more even, wondering when the free gas pumps will be installed.
James Thomas Bruce III says
David Reel’s letter to the editor complained about Easton paying $900 per month for vehicle charging stations. If that cost hastens the day that all vehicles in Easton are electric, then it is a bargain. Having lived in Easton for the past year and a half, the most obvious unaddressed plague on the town is noise from trucks, cars, and motorcycles, much of it deliberate from drivers who believe they have the right to impose audible proof of their presence on residents like me. (If Easton has a noise ordinance, it is not enforced.) Vehicle electrification would eliminate that plague.
Further, Mr. Reel is shocked at the idea that tax-payer dollars in Easton would go to subsidize the electric vehicle industry. Really? U.S. taxpayers, including Eastoners, subside the oil industry by an estimated $20 billion per year – think oil depletion allowances and other inordinate tax advantages. Yet, that is negligible to the health and dollar cost on all of us of air pollution, and yes, climate change. Climate-fueled disasters cost the U.S. an estimated $165 billion last year. The single most important change to attack global warming is to drastically reduce our consumption of fossil fuels. Electric vehicles do that.
Yes, make the subsidy for electric charging stations in Easton’s budget fully transparent. And increase it.
Reed Fawell 3 says
The unaddressed and unproven assumptions behind the conclusions reached in the second paragraph of the above post takes one’s breath away. As to the first paragraph, might it be reasonable to suggest a cost/benefit analysis of Mr. Bruce’s noise abatement program for Easton.