Gas Taxes - 12 cents?? Not So Sure

The 12 cent per gallon gas tax that squeezed through the Legislature and was signed by our train-loving Guv went into effect this week.  Your diligent reporter decided to document the event via the Peninsula Ave. Shell station's signage.  Here is the tale of the 12 cent tape--two days before:

And two days after

I'll also add Laura's comment from the No on "I" post

I heard someone speaking earlier this week that said with the new current gas tax bills, by 2020, we in the Bay Area will paying $1.58 per gallon in gas tax. That's State and Federal taxes. That's $23.70 in taxes on a 15 gallon fill up. Diesel would be more. We are at $.76/.78 right now. Sorry, can't remember exactly, as I was in shock over the $1.58, but thought he said that the increase to the $1.58, was to help pay for the HSR.

So there you have it.  Death by a thousand cuts and people wonder why "the Bay Area is so expensive"?  Maybe it's because .12 becomes .20 unnoticed or maybe it's because some of us keep voting for that.

Comments

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-Property Prices
-Property Taxes. Unless you are under the Prop 13. Property Owner "Free Money."
-Schools-The Schools have suffered the most from lack of funds, due to Prop.13
-Energy Costs
-Multi-Million/Billion Dollar Homes, Wineries, Private Schools burning to the ground, and those people receiving FEMA housing, Money, Transportation-New Cars, a $2600.00 stipend per week for a family of four.
-Traffic
-Poor(Reactive/not Proactive) HWY, surface maintenance
-Illegals
-Food Costs

Something is very wrong for "Us" for letting this BS Happen.
PS
Hillsider

CBS/60 Minutes has been doing a "Piece" in and @ Callistoga, and Napa Valley, the last 6 days.

[Joe]

Thank you, holly. I think you agree with me. Sometimes it's just hard to tell! :-)

[Mohammed Arkin]

Mass-exodus of companies moving out of CA.
Giant sucking noise can be heard throughout the USA.
Way to go idiot libs.

[Joe]

From today's Comicle:

The future of California’s new fuel tax — 12 cents a gallon for gasoline, 20 cents for diesel fuel — is likely to go before the voters in November 2018. What’s less clear is whether the official title on the state ballot pamphlet, an important source of voter information, will start by saying it “repeals taxes” or “eliminates ... revenues” for transportation and road repair.

Both descriptions are accurate. Which one will accompany a Republican-sponsored initiative to repeal the tax, as of January 2019, is a question now before a state appeals court in Sacramento. The justices must weigh their duty to inform the voters against the authority provided by law to Attorney General Xavier Becerra, whose office prepares the title and summary for every proposed ballot measure.

Becerra, a Democrat, drafted a title for the initiative that referred only to its impact on repair programs and revenue, though his more-detailed summary that followed listed each tax that would be repealed. In September, a Sacramento County judge, in an unusual but not unprecedented action, found the title misleading and rewrote it to lead with the gas tax repeal.

The attorney general’s office challenged the judge’s action to the Third District Court of Appeal.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Repeal-gas-tax-or-end-revenue-for-road-repairs-12350852.php

Further down the article it notes a poll that says 54% would vote to repeal.

[Laura]

Get ready for more gridlock on the 101 corridor. Caltrans, with all their wisdom, thinks the traffic problems on 101 are due to a lack of an HOV lane going north and south bound from 380 to Whipple in both directions. They are holding meetings on December 6th ( Redwood Cities City Hall and December 11th (San Mateo's city Hall) and are asking for comments. If you drive this area, you know that an HOV lane will completely gridlock 101. I really wish that for once, these guys would actually drive the area in question, prior to coming up with their "genius" ideas on how to fix it. The problem with this corridor is the off ramps/on ramps for Hillsdale and 92 in both directions. They are too close together and backs the traffic up for miles in each direction. Also, they need to tie Foster City and Redwood shores together some way other than 101. If you would like to comment on this, you can email them at: [email protected]

[Joe]

From today's WSJ:

American drivers are feeling the pinch of rising oil prices at the pump, as major oil producers push to eliminate supply and rebalance the market.

“This summer, in terms of average gas prices, will likely be the highest since 2014,” said Patrick DeHaan, petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, a fuel-tracking app. “There’s been very little question about that.”

Crude prices have jumped thanks to continuing production cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major oil producers, including Russia, that agreed to collectively limit output two years ago.

As a result, gasoline is also becoming more expensive. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, average regular retail gas prices reached $2.70 a gallon last week—the highest level since 2015.
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I'm dreaming of $2.70 gas......not with all the taxes piled on top of it.

[Joe]

Here we go, tank up before July 1st:

Beginning July 1, California’s gas tax increases from 41.7 cents to 47.3 cents per gallon, a 5.6 cent increase in the price of fuel.

The tax increase is an annual adjustment to the tax the state applies to a gallon of gas. In 2016, Californians paid about 28 cents in state taxes for a gallon of gas.

The rate climbed by 12 cents per gallon in 2017 after the Legislature passed a 10-year tax and fee increase that aims to raise about $52 billion for transportation projects.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article231643868.html?
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"transportation projects". How about repaving El Camino Real in B'game????

[Joe]

Premium is going for $4.49 at the Bayshore Shell station, so up almost a buck since this post. The Wall Street Journal has this insight--read to the end, the last sentence is a gem:

Following the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities last month, many forecasters warned that gas prices would spike. Yet prices have hardly budged—except in California, where they are surging due to policies that have made the state more reliant on foreign oil.

Gas prices in the Golden State have shot up 30 cents a gallon in the last week amid problems at in-state refineries to a statewide average of $4.03 a gallon and may be headed higher. Prices rose a mere 10 cents nationwide in the week after the attacks on Saudi facilities and have since ticked down a few cents.

A big reason gas prices didn’t spike after the Saudi attack is growing U.S. shale oil production, which has doubled since 2012 to about 12.5 million barrels a day and added about six million barrels to global supply. This has more than offset the 5.7 million barrels that were temporarily knocked out of Saudi production.

Yet oil production in California has declined about 18% since 2012 as older wells are exhausted and regulatory costs make it less profitable to drill new ones. California has made up for its declining domestic production by importing more foreign oil by tanker, especially from, you guessed it, Saudi Arabia—which emits more CO2.

Regulatory costs have also forced many refiners in the state to close. The California Energy Commission notes that “the cost of complying with environmental regulations and low product prices will continue to make it difficult to continue operating older, less efficient refineries.” Few refineries outside of the state produce the unique fuel blends required by California.

Thus when California refineries experience problems, retailers must import foreign gasoline at steep prices, a challenge partly exacerbated by the outages in Saudi Arabia. Add California’s 61-cent-a-gallon gas tax—the highest in the country—and this is why its gas prices are now nearly $1.40 higher than the U.S. average and $1.70 more than in Texas.

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently remarked that “Saudi Arabia is showing us how dependent we are on foreign oil.” By “we,” he means the royal California.
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So we have another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences as well as more evidence that at least some of the "affordability" crisis is self-imposed.

[Georgetown]

$2.89 here in Washington DC

[resident]

Probably subsidized by the local Democratic Socialists. It must be "fair" don't you know.

[Joe]

Here's more Covid-19 collateral damage:

Stay-home order could cost California $370 million in gas tax for road fixes: ‘A heavy hit’

California’s stay-at-home order could mean a loss of $370 million in funds that help pay for highway construction and maintenance as well as aid for transit, a new study from UC Davis’ Road Ecology Center reported Friday.
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But construction of HSR continues as it is "essential" to spend $49M a month on a boondoggle.

[resident]

Starting July 1, California drivers will be paying 50.5 cents per gallon for the gasoline excise tax, up from 47.3 cents per gallon presently. For those who drive a diesel car, the excise tax will jump to 38.5 cents per gallon, up from the current 36 cents. According to the Los Angeles Times, this is the third gas tax increase in the last four years.

[resident]

And right on schedule, July 1 brings another increase.

On July 1, California’s excise tax on a gallon of gasoline will rise to 51.1 cents. At a time when the state budget is enjoying historic surpluses, Californians’ deserve a tax break, not higher taxes. The average
family of four pays as much as $800 in gas taxes a year and this increase is going to cost California drivers an additional $83 million in the next year alone. Gas costs account for 14% of expenditures in the
agricultural sector, and raising the gas tax would inherently raise the price of food, further resulting in not just a higher tax at the pump, but also increased costs at the checkout line.

Who is missing the $3.05 gas? It's lucky we have a $75 billion surplus this year.

[Joe]

You just have to love this from today's WSJ editorial:

The contradictions of climate politics keep piling up, and the latest is a call from Democratic Senators running for re-election this year to suspend the federal gas tax. Hello? Isn’t the point of Democratic climate plans to raise the price of fossil fuels so we use less? Or at least it is until rising gasoline prices begin to have political consequences.

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan on Wednesday introduced legislation to waive the 18.4 cent per gallon federal gas tax through 2022—long enough to get them past tough re-elections in November. Co-sponsors include Georgia’s Raphael Warnock and Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto —also up in November—as well as Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow and Nevada’s Jacky Rosen.

Another rich irony: Senate Democrats who want to suspend the gas tax support President Biden’s Build Back Better Act that would impose myriad new taxes on U.S. oil and gas. But shhhh, keep that one quiet from voters.

[Barking Dog]

Not surprised to see the Nevada senators putting their names on this. Everything I read here in Northern Nevada, the Washoe Valley is not happy with these 2 senators.

[Joe]

Today's Daily Post has an article about the reluctance of some of our state legislators to stop the automatic, annual inflation-based increase in the CA gas tax. It went from 50.5 cents to 51.1 cents per gallon last summer and will certainly jump more than that with inflation running above 7%. Newsom wants to do it, but the Dems do not.

"Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (talk about a frustrating job!) criticized the Democratic leaders. Saying the state won't ease that burden while we're sitting on a $40 billion surplus is astounding. What's better use for that money? High-speed rail?"

Ouch

[Peter Garrison]

The State wants us out of cars.

I read in the Mercury News today that Bart ridership is down almost 90% in the South Bay due to people working from home.

Well if the State wanted people to stop polluting then working from home and not taking any kind of transit seems to be the best solution. Be careful what you ask for.

[MBGA]

Agreed. Be careful what you masked for.

[Joe]

Tim Anaya at the Pacific Research Institute is out with a "Don't Hold Your Breath" piece about gas rebates:

Not much progress has been made in the effort to enact a gas tax rebate or gas tax holiday since lawmakers and Gov. Newsom released competing proposals last month.

Californians have been waiting for Sacramento to take action to provide relief from gas prices that, even though may have dipped from record highs a few weeks ago, are still an astronomically-high $5.69 on average as of April 20, according to AAA.

Based on the latest news from the State Capitol, drivers shouldn’t count on getting relief at the pump from lawmakers any time soon.

In his 2022-23 budget proposal, Newsom proposed suspending the annual July 1 increase in the gasoline excise tax for inflation. The Administration estimated that the increase would be 5.6 percent in January. But lawmakers would have to vote to make the suspension reality.

Politico reports this week that, “lawmakers would need to pass legislation by Sunday as an early-action budget item . . . (but they) have yet to introduce any legislation on the matter — despite having bill language from the governor’s Department of Finance.”

“It is clear now that the Legislature will not act in time to provide that immediate, limited relief,” Newsom spokesperson Alex Stack told Politico.

Californians currently pay the nation’s highest gas taxes according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. SB 1, enacted in 2017, imposed a $52 billion statewide gas tax increase to pay for transportation infrastructure projects.
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And today's Chron is suggesting the state budget surplus will be around $62 billion, with a "b".

[Paloma Ave]

Gas prices in Maui are averaging $5.39 a gallon.

[Cassandra]

It’s amazing to me that any government is thinking about parcel taxes, gas taxes or business taxes after this shutdown screwup of two years +.

Leave us alone to get our lives back together.