Charge taxes when new tires are purchased or when registration is completed to charge by the mile (vehicle weight class factored). Take taxes off of fuel altogether. Now you've linked the tax directly to the road maintenance/infrastructure. However, big gov doesn't like not having an ambiguous pot of money to pull from.
The very big downside to taxing tires is that not everyone has the money (or credit) to simply go out and buy tires when they need them. For some people, it may be a choice between buying badly-needed new tires or eating that month. You don't want to make it even more expensive for them, thus endangering them and everyone else on the roads. We tend to forget that not everyone has as much disposable cash as most pilots do.
Even for those for whom the cost of tires isn't a problem, there are those who choose to replace tires well before they legally have to simply because it's safer. Punishing responsible behavior is not good policy.
For better or worse, the fuel tax is what we have. It also has some advantages in terms of more-accurate apportionment by location, and it doesn't penalize responsible behavior. So tax public charging stations, including those provided by businesses for employees and customers, on a metered basis. A hundred percent of those taxes would be apportioned to the jurisdiction for road costs.
For home charging stations, require that all new chargers have metering built in that the owner (or utility company meter reader) could read and report to the electric company, and apportion
that portion of the existing utility tax to road use. The customer's taxes wouldn't change, just the apportionment to roads as a percentage of total electric use. If existing chargers don't have that ability (I have no idea whether they do), then come up with an estimated percentage and use that instead.
For those who generate their own electricity using solar, wind, etc., apportion a percentage of whatever taxes they're already paying (if any) to road use. If they're not being taxed at all on self-generated electricity, then let the state legislatures deal with that. If they want, they can collect taxes on the portion used for charging vehicles. If not, EV drivers get a free ride (literally in this case).
Taxing home charging doesn't unfairly penalize EV owners because owners of ICE vehicles typically don't have the ability to brew fuel at home, so they're paying at the pumps. (Yes, there are a few home-brew biodiesel makers out there; but I doubt if even one percent of miles driven are powered by homemade fuel.) Also, purchased electricity is already taxed in most jurisdictions, so that wouldn't change. Only the apportionment, not the total tax, would change.
Rich
They quickly ended the toll, but people voted against them. It wasn't the toll per-se, but rather the overwhelming lack of trust from the toll debacle.
