Shahla Werner, director of the Wisconsin chapter of the Sierra Club, says the issue goes beyond environmental concerns.

“This hurts American automakers like Chevy who are working hard to innovate to meet new fuel efficiency standards,” she says.

Kevin Traas, director of policy with the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association is sympathetic to those arguments but says hybrid owners, by paying less in gasoline taxes, are getting something of a free ride on the public roadways.

“All of our vehicles are becoming more fuel efficient, which is a good thing,” he says. “But if you are driving an electric or hybrid car you still need to have the snow plowed or the State Patrol to show up if you have an accident on the Interstate.”

Transportation analysts in Wisconsin have been warning of a funding crisis ever since former governors Tommy Thompson and Jim Doyle started dipping into the state Transportation Fund (fuel taxes and registration fee monies) to cover shortfalls in other areas more than a decade ago. In 2006, the state Legislature also froze the gas tax and eliminated an annual increase pegged to the inflation rate, further adding to the transportation budget shortfalls.