GastaxmanCalifornia Politics There is a long history of gas taxes dating back about 100 years that most people in the state do not know they are paying. It all started in 1923, The Motor Vehicle Fuel License Tax Law imposed a license tax known as a Gas Tax for anyone who pumped gas at a gas station anywhere in California. This gas tax was put in place because of a need for revenue to meet the increasing of highway cost (caltrans.ca.gov). Making this a state bill in 1923, state lawmakers made it so that two cents per gallon would be added of taxes to the cost of gas for every gallon pumped in the state (caltrans.ca.gov).
Then in 1927, it was raised one more cent a gallon for the state construction funds to pay for new roads. 20 years later, in 1947, because of the Collier Burns Act both gas and fuel increase to four and half cents per gallon on taxes (caltrans.ca.gov). From the gas tax revenues, the counties received 5.4 million dollars and one and three eighths cents per gallon from the four and a half cents the state was charging. The state would get two and a half cents and the cities would receive five eights cents per gallon. Temporarily in 1953, the gas tax was raised from four and a half to six cents per gallon to help restoration and repairs roads and freeways from the damage the storms left that year. Within the 10 year span from 1953 to 1963 another cent was added to the gas tax making it 7 cents per gallon (caltrans.ca.gov). They switched how the distribution of gas tax was going so the counties got 1.625 cents, cities received .725 cents, and cities and counties got 1.04 cents. The remaining 3.61 cents went to the state highways funds. The state lawmakers boosted excised tax to 9 cents per gallon in 1983. After came proposition 111 in 1990, which voters supported and raised the excised tax to 14 cents a gallon and where it would go up a penny every year until 1994 where it would reach 18 cents a gallon (caltrans.ca.gov). In 2010 the sale tax on gas reduced, but excised was at 36 cent per gallon (Richards, Gary). Going up another 3.5 cent in 2013 now the state gas tax was at 39.5 per gallon (Richards, Gary). Last we had the fuel tax increases and vehicle fees increase in 2017 basically from the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 that increased the gas tax to where is is now. This gas tax was so controversial. Proposition 6 was introduced in the 2018 elections as a repeal on the gas tax because some people felt it was too much on what Californians were already paying. The gas tax was an increase on taxes in gasoline, diesel, and registration fees. It’s a state law called SB-1 transportation funding that helps fund for the state highway system, the local street, and road system. This affects the people in California that are in the mid-lower to lower class, especially like cities in the bay area that are expensive to live in. The tax on gasoline increased by 12 cents per gallon and for diesel it increased 20 cents per gallon (Baldassari, Erin). Also, registration for vehicles went up between $25 and $175 depending on the value of the car (Baldassari, Erin). For those who have a zero- emission vehicle, they will have to pay $100 on registration fees by 2020 (Baldassari, Erin). With these raises on these new taxes and fees it’s expected to generate $5.4 billion annually (Baldassari, Erin). About two-thirds of the money from the higher taxes and fees is split between state highway repairs and money for cities and counties to maintain local streets. The next-largest share goes to transit, which receives about 14 percent of the funds (Baldassari, Erin). Eventually during the 2018 election, Prop 6 was rejected by the voters of California. In the governor's race, Gavin Newsom was against it and John Cox was in favor of the proposition. These governor candidates had a big debate that was highly publicized during their campaign. This shows it was an important issue for both of them. There is correlation between the winner of the governor's race, which was Gavin Newsom, and his stance on Prop 6. Jeff Denham supported Prop 6 and lost his election for U.S house district 10 (ballotpedia.org). Steven Bailey supported prop 6 and eventually lost to Xavier Becerra for Attorney General (ballotpedia.org). There seems to be a small connection between the winners of the 2018 elections and their stance on Prop 6. However not everyone in different districts who supported Governor Newsom were against the gas tax. Some district were in favor of proposition 6 because in some counties, the people who lived there are lower class people. That means that they were going to have to pay more in gas tax. Which if that they will have to spend more on gas and it was going to affect their livelihoods more than a more well off person.
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AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
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