I think increasing the payroll tax is a mistake. People who don’t own a car should actually be rewarded because they pollute far less, they don’t disable workers, they don’t require traffic police, they don’t emit CO2…
I would replace the payroll tax with a weight tax on huge SUVs.
My understanding is that taxing gas is a decent proxy for taxing things like road wear or the need for road construction. So if 300 SUVs roll over a crack and turn it into a pothole, the funds for fixing that pothole come from the money they pay into tax at the gas station.
Since EVs skip that step, the tax is meant to represent that road wear, without the infrastructure or wars in the Middle East that goes into delivering gas.
A better way of taxing would be without a proxy. Road wear is proportional to vehicle weight and miles driven. That’s why I’m advocating for that.
Taxes are an incentive. Under my proposal being better saves money. Not buying gas lowers your tax. Driving less lowers your tax. Driving a lighter vehicle lowers your tax.
Being bad and driving a heavy, gas powered, car excessive distances becomes unaffordable. As it should.