Do the math

The writer of Saturday’s letter “What’s next?” [Northwest Voices, Jan. 5] should do the math regarding the $100 fee for electric-car owners.

Divide the 37 cents per gallon into $100, and you get 270.27 gallons of gas. Divide that by 12, you get roughly 22.5 gallons a month. That’s equivalent to about half what the average driver buys.

The electric-car owner is getting a good deal. Yes they are using the roads, and all users must pay for maintenance. It’s fair. The letter writer’s hyperbolic comparison, like fees for not smoking to aid the tobacco companies, is comparing apples and lug nuts.

-- Michael Dahlstrom, Everett

Smoking comparison doesn’t work

It seems completely fair that those who drive electric cars contribute to the creation and maintenance of the roads they drive by paying $100 per year, since they no longer contribute to roads through the gas tax.

Ron Self takes this logic one step further by saying that those who used to smoke should pay an annual fee as well to compensate for the tobacco tax they used to pay.

Sorry Ron, but you drove off the cliff on this one. Presumably, those who no longer smoke enjoy better health and do not use the additional health services provided by the tax (which is mostly putative, anyway). Therefore, if you want to give up driving any type of vehicle, then you can stop contributing to road maintenance. Otherwise, pay your fair share for the services you use.

-- C.B. Samuel, Bellevue