With the new 5.6-cent increase on California gasoline taxes as of July 1, the Golden State now has both the highest gas taxes and highest gas costs.
The increase is connected with a 2017 bill, SB1, signed into law by former Gov. Jerry Brown. The bill, which was designed to raise roughly $5 billion a year for road maintenance and mass-transit programs, came into effect November of that year, increasing gas taxes by 12 cents at the time. The law also allows the state to continually raise gasoline taxes, based on inflation, without further legislative or voter approval.
Proposition 6, a Republican-led initiative in last year’s midterm elections, which would have repealed SB1 and mandated that all future gasoline tax increases would have to be approved by a popular vote, failed to pass last fall, keeping the gas tax in place.
Gasoline prices surged at the beginning of the year, but began to drop in May and June, before rising again in July due to the new tax, according to GasBuddy.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has placed blame for gas prices on possible “inappropriate industry practices,” as opposed to California’s taxes, he wrote in a letter to the California Energy Commission. In April, he ordered the commission to investigate the state’s high gas prices.
Waldron’s counterpart in the State Senate, Shannon Grove, said in a statement that the increase will “make California less affordable and take another $850 million out of our families’ pocketbooks,” reported AP.
Republicans in the legislature attempted to delay the July increase, but their measure was blocked by Democrats, who hold a 61–19 majority in the Assembly and a 29–11 majority in the Senate.