A Nat'l Car Tax Would Enlist States as Federal Tax Collectors

The legal principle dominating Supreme Court jurisprudence in recent decades known as the anti-commandeering doctrine, holds that the Constitution, in particular the Tenth Amendment, bars Congress from forcing state governments to enforce federal law, including federal tax law. Yet congressional Republicans are now advancing a bill that seeks to do just that, with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s May 22 passage of H.R. 8870, legislation that would institute a $150 yearly federal tax on electric vehicles (EVs) and a $50 tax on plug-in hybrids. The bill requires state governments to collect and remit this new federal car tax.