Those attending a San Mateo rally for the repeal of a 12-cent gas tax this week are feeling confident, but those against the effort say it will have a devastating effect on traffic congestion.
About 70 people attended the rally at the American Legion Hall Monday featuring Gas Tax Repeal Chair Carl DeMaio, who spoke at the event along with candidates for several state-level offices. It was the first of four “Yes on Proposition 6” rallies planned for the Bay Area in the coming months.
“We’re going to be outspent, but we’re going to make this happen,” said DeMaio.
In addition to repealing the 12-cent gas tax, the “Yes on 6” campaign is proposing an alternative plan in which revenue from the previous rate is spent only on road maintenance and improvements while money from the existing car sales tax would be spent on “regional infrastructure maintenance and expansion,” according to the campaign’s website.
“It’s time we rebuild California and we have a plan to do that without tax increases,” DeMaio said.
The Road Repair and Accountability Act or Senate Bill 1 was approved by the Legislature in 2017 and raised the state tax on gasoline from 18 cents a gallon to 30 cents a gallon. It increased the excise tax on diesel by 20 cents a gallon and bumped the sales tax rate on diesel from 9 percent to 13 percent. The bill also raised vehicle registration fees to between $25 and $175 a year, depending on the value of the vehicle. And starting in 2020, electric vehicle drivers will pay a $100 fee since they aren’t chipping in on road repairs via gas taxes.
These taxes and fees are expected to generate $5.2 billion annually and $54 billion over the next 10 years for public transit, traffic congestion relief, bike and pedestrian projects and highway, bridge and road repairs.
Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, who co-authored SB 1, called the repeal effort “misguided and cynical.”
“Critical projects are already underway in San Mateo County or are soon to be underway that are a direct result of funding established through this legislation,” he said in an email, referring to the aforementioned projects as well as SamTrans express bus service. “Should a repeal be successful, the funding for these projects and for local street repairs would disappear and just promise more potholes, car repair bills and traffic congestion.”
For San Mateo County, revenue projections total $100 million throughout the lifespan of the tax and each of the county’s 20 cities will benefit. Caltrain electrification and the Highway 101 Managed Lanes project will both see funding, and the first 10 road improvement projects are progressing faster than expected and should be complete by the summer of 2019. They include road reconstruction in North Fair Oaks, pothole repairs in La Honda and El Granada and repairs and maintenance in the San Mateo Highlands, Burlingame Hills and West Menlo Park, according to county officials.
Critics of the tax doubt revenue will be spent as advertised and argue that it unfairly burdens low-income drivers. Nearly 1 million signatures were gathered to place the repeal on the ballot.
“We have a problem with fraud, where they say give us money and we’ll fix your problem and we say we’ve seen this movie before, I think I know the ending-the pothole remains unfilled and I pay more,” DeMaio said. “What it means [if Proposition 6 passes] is immediate tax relief for working families. A family of four will get tax relief of about $779 per year.”
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During the rally, speakers disparaged the tax as yet another contributor to the Bay Area’s high cost of living, which is forcing many to leave the region. Voters in San Mateo County joined those in nine Bay Area counties in approving bridge toll hikes in June and they’ll consider a countywide half-cent sales tax increase for transportation improvements in November.
“We’re being overtaxed. They keep asking us for another tax every few years, again and again,” said Sue, who attended the rally and declined to provide her last name. “It has nothing to do with whether you’re conservative or liberal, but I think it’s about time to tell them to stop taxing us to death. People can’t afford it. People are leaving.”
Thomas Weissmiller, who also attended the gathering, said he’s especially concerned about the lack of accountability and restrictions on the tax revenue.
“A gas tax should be going to roads, but when they take that money away to go to other projects, it’s disingenuous,” he said.
The projects benefiting from the gas tax are varied and by no means limited to road repairs, but many in attendance believe revenue will be diverted away from transportation altogether.
“If you really want to follow the money, the reason why they raised the gas tax is because they have a major pension crisis on their hands,” DeMaio said. “A lot of that money also goes into the local government salary and benefit system.”
According to the county website, no SB 1 money will be put into the state’s general fund, only transportation accounts, or will any revenue be used to payback outstanding transportation loans. And the tax and registration fee hikes will cost the average driver about $10 a month, according to the California Department of Finance.
“Everyone who uses our roads and highways is contributing to the wear and tear of that infrastructure so we all need to contribute to its maintenance and improvement,” said Dave Pine, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, noting that the gas tax hadn’t been increased in decades.
Supporters of the measure also point to the savings in maintaining vehicles as a result of road improvements funded by SB 1. The county’s website states that the average driver in California spends $739 per year due to wear and tear from driving on bad roads.
“Not retaining SB 1 funding and the tax that partially funds it means drivers will continue to have to pay a lot of money each year to maintain their cars from the wear and tear of less-than-adequately maintained roadways,” Pine said. “There will be a lot of communications to voters about where the money is currently going, which will be helpful, but I think this will be a very close election.”
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(6) comments
Transportation infrastructure is expensive, but it is necessary. 12 cents per gallon is not unreasonable. It is only about 3.5% of the cost of a gallon, and the gas tax hasn't been raised in 25 years. Repealing this gas tax is an example of being penny wise and pound foolish.
Tom- You are right that being penny wise and pound foolish is not smart, however, that is a common characteristic for many people. This is not about the 12 cents, and the 3.5% cost on a gallon of gas. This is about being taxed enough already. And its about being lied to with a straight face, because the system is so thoroughly corrupt! Willie Brown's beautiful new eastern span S.F. Oakland Bay Bridge is an excellent example of poor to stupid government. 1) Caltrans failed to make very minor safety modifications during decades prior to 1989 resulting in deaths and destruction: who lost their jobs? 2) Caltrans fixed that problem, then told us the bridge is "unsafe to drive on," but still let us all take our chances for another 24+ years. 3) Caltrans gets the OK to build the new bridge, but instead of also keeping the old bridge as a backup, they sell it for scrap, and we pay to demo it. 4) Caltrans builds the beautiful new Willie bridge, and it comes in what, about double the cost they sold to voters? And then it has structural integrity issues from errors, and/or bad management. And again who lost their jobs? If you don't understand and accept the connection, there is no hope for a meaningful discussion on this subject, because Caltrans runs the roads.
European gas taxes are far higher than US, and they use the revenue to subsidize their highly touted high speed trains, not widen roads. The intent is to urge drivers out of cars, reduce traffic and emissions and eliminate the need to gobble up more land for highways.
Why use Europe as a comparison when there really is very little in common to compare? Our problem is not should we all pay an additional $0.12/gallon of gas, and even more for diesel. Our problem is having a dominant group of state legislators who use the public's tax money unwisely. They over pay themselves, over pension themselves, over perk themselves, then attempt to do the same for unions in order to gain support and political contributions. They seem to have no system of priorities and even less for accountability. Money seems to flow like water, and few things improve. The Republican opposition says we don't have an income problem, we have a spending problem. And shocker that it is: the more money the state brings in each year, it still NEVER has enough. The reserve fund Gov. Brown negotiated were a great idea, except for the structural debt problems were not fixed. Add to this the fact that under Prop 13 business owner properties are under taxed, and residential properties are unfairly taxed, and the tax pie is almost constantly growing. That's one reason why the state income grows. We see more trouble ahead because the people running the show in SAC never ran a for profit business.
Governor Brown promised not to pass any taxes without the people’s approval. He and the supermajority Democrat Party reneged and passed SB1. It cost the Democrats. Democratic Senator Josh Newman cast the vote that met the supermajority. Newman was recalled and no longer has the title of Senator. YES ON 6, Repeal the Gas Tax has legs and support from across the political spectrum. The people need to send a message, “Lie to the public – you will be removed.”
My 2 cents is that our governments in state and local have to prove they are getting the best out of our taxes and they are not. I think we all agree we need infrastructure improvements, but we as citizens have to some times have to put our foot down. Remember prop 13.
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