Brown gambles on voter support for fee increases
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders are betting that Californians will not revolt over their proposed increase to the vehicle license fee, the way voters did 14 years ago when then-Gov. Gray Davis tripled the price motorists paid to register their cars.
Political experts say the Democrats pushing a $52 billion transportation plan appear to be on safe ground because the economic climate in 2017 — more robust and lower gas prices — is much better than it was in 2003, when enraged voters threw Davis out of office and replaced him with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who promptly eliminated the “car tax.”
Davis himself said he expects voters won’t react the same to the new fee as they did when he — after years of lowering the vehicle license fee to get Republicans to sign the state budget — then hiked
it without a legislative vote to help close a budget gap.
“It was a substantial increase, it was about triple what they paid the year before,” Davis said Thursday. “This fee even for cars that cost $60,000 or more is a maximum of $175. So, I don’t think that the sticker shock is anywhere near as from 2003. And you can argue that 14 years have passed.”
Still, a UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies poll found in 2015 that Californians overwhelmingly opposed higher gas taxes or vehicle registration fees.
GOP strategist Rob Stutzman said, however, that there’s a big difference between this week’s proposal and Davis’ stumble.
“Back then, the vehicle license fee (increase) was used to fund a deficit,” said Stutzman, who served as spokesman for Schwarzenegger during the recall election. “There wasn’t a nexus to improving the roads like they are talking about today.”
Brown and state legislative leaders unveiled their plan Wednesday to repair the state’s aging roads and bridges and improve public transportation. The plan, which needs twothirds support in the Senate and the Assembly, would raise $5.2 billion a year for 10 years by increasing the vehicle registration fee by $25 to $175, depending on the value of the vehicle, hiking gas and diesel taxes, and creating an annual $100 fee on zero-emission vehicles.
Brown and legislative leaders went to Concord on Thursday to promote their proposal, and the governor acknowledged the plan would be a “heavy lift” for some motorists.
“If we don’t do it, the roads will crumble,” Brown said during a news conference on an unused Concord road where he was flanked by a sea of orange-vest-clad construction workers and more formally dressed politicians, including state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount (Los Angeles County). “If we don’t do it this year, I predict it won’t happen for a long time.”
The proposal would increase the vehicle license fee on a sliding scale depending on the value of the car, with the highest increase of $175 being paid by people whose cars are worth more than $60,000.
Currently, California drivers pay a vehicle licensing fee of 0.65 percent of the value of a car. Under the transportation proposal, the vast majority of Californians would pay $25 or $50 more to register their vehicle since 87 percent of vehicles are valued at less than $25,000.
The state’s gas excise tax, currently 18 cents, would increase by 12 cents per gallon to 30 cents. The excise tax on diesel fuel would increase by 20 cents a gallon to 36 cents, and the diesel sales tax also would rise to 5.75 percent from the current 1.75 percent. Electric and hybrid-vehicle drivers, meanwhile, would pay a new $100-per-year fee beginning in 2020.
The Institute of Governmental Studies poll in 2015 found Californians strongly opposed (74 percent) to increasing vehicle registration fees. They also opposed (63 percent) raising the gas tax. Those voters disapproved of the increases even when told they would fund road repairs.
Steve Maviglio, a Democratic strategist who was a spokesman for Davis during the recall, said the vehicle licensing fee today doesn’t carry the same weight it once did.
“Timing is everything,” Maviglio said. “When that was a major issue (in 2003) we were in a recession and gas prices were high. We are in a recovery now and gas prices are low . ... The roads are so bad. Voters get that you have to spend money to fix things.”
Republicans have widely criticized the plan pushed by Democrats, which could be voted on as early as next week. Republicans argue that the state already has more than enough funding and should reprioritize how it spends that money.
For example, the state will increase the base vehicle registration fee of $43 by $10 on April 1, in part to pay for increased salaries and pension costs at the California Highway Patrol. Republicans say that should go toward fixing roads.
And, says former Rep. Doug Ose, the state should prioritize fixing its roads instead of spending billions on the highspeed rail project championed by Brown.
The $52 billion plan “is a hard sell in swing districts,” Ose said Thursday. “This may very well cost Democrats their two-thirds supermajority.”