Newsom’s $400 just a band-aid on bullet holes

Governor Newsom intends to spread love by sending California drivers $400 checks and threemonth transit passes. That would be great if you lived in San Francisco and had BART or 3-mile work commutes in your Prius.

Unfortunately many rural Californians live and work miles from their destinations. Many drive large pickups to work though, I suppose, it’s their own fault they don’t have Teslas in their garages. Meanwhile the governor is quick to spend billions in taxpayer dollars for his pet social programs.

When that $400 per vehicle is long gone you’re still charged $10 tax for 20 gallons of gasoline.

Democrats say eliminating the $.50 per gallon tax “would upend roadway improvements.” How have those “improvements,” along with massive automobile registration fees, worked so far?

I don’t like oil companies and I don’t like greenhouse emissions. I’m not even a Republican. But it seems suspending the gas tax for the duration of the fuel crisis would be logical. Maybe the $21,000,000,000 Newsom lost during the pandemic unemployment debacle would have assisted taxpayer purchases of E-cars. But the fact remains, without California’s gas tax it’s already a tough world for working and young people making less than Newsome’s $1,500,000 yearly earnings.

My point is this: $400 checks are band-aids on bullet holes. The fair way to assist motorists in these inflationary times is to temporarily dump the tax and save consumers $.51 per gallon. Later we can and should “pump” surplus California dollars into E-car rebates and charging stations. — Joe Abbott, Chico