For What It May Be Worth

While many of us have been fixated on the soaring gas prices and dreading our next fill-up at the pump, Connecticut recently passed new legislation making a switch to electric vehicles even more intriguing.

During the 2022 legislative session, the Connecticut General Assembly passed Public Act No. 22-25—An Act Concerning The Connecticut Clean Air Act (the “Act”)—which, in part, creates a property tax exemption for: i) level two electric vehicle charging stations located on commercial or industrial properties; ii) virtually any electric vehicle charging station located on residential properties; and iii) any refueling equipment for fuel cell electric vehicles.

The Act further mandates that all new state facilities constructed on or after January 1, 2023—in which construction costs exceed $100,000—have level two electric vehicle charging stations installed in at least 25% of the facility’s parking spaces. For non-state facilities, the Act requires that any new commercial or multi-family residential buildings constructed on or after January 1, 2023, with 30 or more parking spaces, install level two or direct current fast-charging stations for electric vehicles in at least 10% of its parking spaces—with a municipal option to increase the threshold above 10%.

The Act has been signed by Governor Lamont making it official law that will be effective October 1, 2022, and will exempt from property taxation the aforementioned, electric charging stations commencing on and after the October 1, 2022 grand lists.

The cornerstone of this legislation appears to be aimed at incentivizing (or in certain circumstances requiring) commercial and industrial property owners to add high-speed electric vehicle charging stations to their real estate by removing the associated property tax expense of doing so and, thereby, ultimately increasing the supply of, and access to, charging stations throughout the state.