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SLO County coalition rallies against state gas tax

August 16, 2017

A coalition of conservative-leaning San Luis Obispo County groups rallied in downtown SLO on Monday against the state of California’s new gas tax law. The rally held outside the county courthouse launched a local effort within a statewide signature drive aimed at repealing the tax increase.

SB 1, the new gas tax law, increases gas taxes and vehicle registration fees in order to raise $5.2 billion annually, or $52 billion over the next decade, for road repairs and maintenance and other transportation related projects. Starting in November, the tax on gas will increase 12 cents from 18 cents per gallon to 30 cents per gallon.

Taxes on diesel will increase even more. The excise tax on diesel will go up 20 cents from 16 cents a gallon to 36 cents per gallon, and the diesel sales tax will rise from 1.75 percent to 5.75 percent.

The legislation also creates a new vehicle registration fee ranging from $25 a year to $175 annually.

In May, Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) filed an initiative calling for the repeal of SB 1. Allen is striving to place the initiative on the Nov. 2018 ballot. Backers of the initiative are engaged in a 150-day process of trying to gather 365,880 signatures from registered California voters.

Local groups represented at Monday’s rally included the Central Coast Taxpayers Association, A Better Atascadero, the San Luis Obispo Property and Business Owners Association, the SLO County Republican Party, the North County Tea Party, the Port San Luis Commercial Fishermen’s Association and several local Republican women’s organizations.

“This rally is about standing up for the forgotten taxpayer of California,” said former congresswoman Andrea Seastrand, the president of the Central Coast Taxpayers Association. “Governor Jerry Brown and the California Democrats’ controversial gas tax and vehicle fee increase has launched a statewide campaign to let voters decide if they want to repeal it.”

A poll released in June by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) found 58 percent of Californians oppose SB 1 while only 35 percent of voters support it. Though voters oppose the gas tax, they remain supportive of Gov. Brown, who has a 59 percent approval rating, according to the IGS poll.


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If we would just vote out the monstrous democrats from office we wouldn’t need a gas tax. I just heard today that California’s crime rate is rising faster than any other state. Well what do we expect when our leaders are releasing convicts early. There! Now we have two good reasons for changing our leadership in the state.


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I, for one, will be turning in my personalized license plate to offset the new DMV fees. This would be a great way for everyone to take measures against this unfair taxation without representation. In the meantime, continue to fight for repeal of the tax. All California government, not just moonbeam, is so far out of control it’s mind boggling.


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How many of the people that are against repealing this socialistic tax are feeding at the public hog trough?


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California


Highest taxes – Worst Roads – Most Tax revenue – Untold waste and corruption.


Until we get what we paid for, NO MORE TAXES!


Sign the petition NoCaGasTax.com


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The gas tax has nothing to do with roads or highways ,,,,,, The gas tax is to support sanctuary cities and CA being a sanctuary state !!!!!!!!!!!!! CA stands to lose alot of money over protecting criminals who are in CA and the USA illegally ,,, So the gas tax will make up for loss of federal monies , they are not immigrants but they are law breakers .


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Most people do not have a clue what the impact of this will have on everyone. The 20 cent tax increase on diesel alone will be devastating to an already failing economy. Almost every commodity that is used by all of us on a daily basis is transported by a diesel powered truck. Businesses are not going to absorb this cost and consequently that additional cost will be passed onto us the taxpayer. Then the hidden factor that since all prices will likely increase so will the sales tax revenue that the state collects.

When and if this tax is implemented a good majority will be directed towards the administrative costs of government that will create more government jobs that will require hiring “the best” that will require all of the high salaries, benefits and retirements that we are beginning to see made public.

Ifd they had only done their job in the first place and spent the money that was collected for roads instead of on their pet projects, or I guess you could say they were out buying voted.


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Just another tax to be spent on pet projects.What about all of the fuel tax the dems have raided and used for other things instead of road maintainence. Why did SLO need a double decker bus? Waste not Want not.


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Interesting that it’s a coalition of conservative-leaning San Luis Obispo County groups rallying against this tax. This type of tax mainly hurts the poor, since they have little income to extract taxes from, the politicians prey on them through fuel and registration taxes.

Wouldn’t cancelling the bullet train be a better way to raise revenue?


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They already have cancelled, road maintenance and existing road safety projects to raise revenue, cancelling a future pipe dream is too easy. But then again, California has legalized pipe dreams as in don’t Bogart that vote my friend.


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A complete waste of time.


Government doesn’t repeal taxes, they create new ones and increase the ones already on the books.


At least they haven’t figured out how to implement a progressive gas tax yet.


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A gas tax is progressive: the more you drive, the more you pay. That seems to me to be fair, provided that the money is used exclusively for road maintenance.


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Good point. I was referring to government devising a way to figure out your income at the pump and charging you more because those who work hard “don’t pay their fare share” according to political rhetoric.


I shouldn’t give them any ideas.


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You’re not going to be thinking that way when you’re paying an extra $12 to fill your tank.


Inflation, here we come


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The working poor, who will bear a disproportionate cost of this tax, commute from the outskirts of the county to SLO city and elsewhere to relatively low-paying jobs. They can’t afford to live in SLO. They don’t just drive around for pleasure, they have to drive to get to work.. Also they tend to drive older, less fuel-efficient cars because that is all they can afford.


This tax will also raise the price of food and all other commodities and items shipped on trucks. The more we spend on basics like food, the less money for other things, which will all be more expensive due to the gas tax. Riding a bike is fine but we don’t ship stuff that way. In a rural state like California, this is a disaster!


Be assured most of this money won’t go to roads, and even if it did, it wouldn’t come to SLO County. With so many Legislators from LA county and the Bay area, we are low on the priority list.


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You make some very good points. Nevertheless, roads need to be maintained under an ever-increasing traffic burden. My guess is that even if the waste and the fraud were to be eliminated, there would still be not enough money to maintain the highway system properly for the future.


If funding of a public good should be attached to those who use it, I don’t see many other possibilities other than a gas tax, a vehicle tax, or toll roads.


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Don’t forget, they want to tax bike riders now also because that takes away from fuel taxes. “If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street

If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat

If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat

If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet” Cause I’m the taxman.


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It’s regressive not progressive. See comments below.

At some point in the not-too-distant future the government will make more on every gallon of gasoline than the oil companies.


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If it were progressive, the tax would INCREASE the more you drove. As it exists, it is a “flat tax” – as you say, fair. Too bad income tax is not fair this way.


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yes they have Cap n Trade is progressive with the oil companies and they will pass it on to us


cap n trade is how the progressives make all the money to subjugate you and I


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