Ambitious drive tries to kill gas excise tax
Measure’s backers focus on commuters, families
The campaign to overturn California’s newly enacted gas tax will hit three Bay Area cities next week, as organizers search for volunteers to post lawn signs, write opinion pieces and spread the taxpayer revolt on social media.
With less than four months to go before the November election, the crusade won’t be easy. Proposition 6, the tax repeal measure, takes aim at a $5 billion-a-year funding stream to fix California’s crumbling roads and boost its mass transit systems. Environmentalists, transportation officials, construction unions and Gov. Jerry Brown are all fighting to protect those funds, and they have raised $14 million — far more than the $5 million haul of the “Yes on 6” campaign.
But none of that has deterred Prop. 6 ’s core supporters or its campaign chairman, conservative talk radio host Carl DeMaio.
“We’re going to win,” he told The Chronicle, insisting that his side has the more compelling argument. Supporters of the repeal say the 12 cents-per-gallon gas excise tax and increased vehicle registration fees passed last year by the Legislature and signed by Brown create hard-
ships for working-class families. They also cast doubt on the government’s ability to manage the money and use it in the way it was intended.
“This tax affects everybody, but it hits the working poor the hardest,” DeMaio said.
Prop. 6 would strike down the gasoline excise tax and the new vehicle fees along with a 20 cents-per-gallon tax increase on diesel fuel approved as SB1. If it survives, SB1 is expected to raise $5.2 billion annually to pave potholed highways, repair aging bridges and boost public transit.
Yet the ballot initiative isn’t solely about taxes. It’s also a rallying point to drive Republicans to the polls in the hope they might also support their party’s gubernatorial candidate, John Cox, and GOP candidates in several key California House races, including in nine districts the Democrats hope to flip in their favor. And Prop. 6 campaign flyers acknowledge that strategy.
As one of the campaign’s flyers says: “Polling shows the repeal initiative will motivate lazy (low propensity) Republican voters to turn out in November ... and will persuade voters to favor the candidates who are opposed to the gas and car tax hikes over the candidates who support it.”
Opponents call the repeal effort a cynical play to protect a few House seats at potentially great cost to California’s roads and transit systems.
“I think that the outcome of their policy would be that California’s infrastructure would continue to degrade, and the roads would be less safe,” said Michael Quigley, executive director of California Alliance for Jobs, a trade and labor coalition that’s leading the effort to defeat Prop 6.
So far, 6,000 projects throughout the state have received SB1 funds. They include lane realignment of Highway 101 to unclog traffic at the Marin-Sonoma Narrows, remodeling of four bridges at the MacArthur Maze to meet vehicle height standards, and repaving much of Interstate 80 in Alameda County, to name three examples.
These efforts could be at risk if the money dries up, Quigley said.
Next week, the Yes on 6 campaign will focus on cities on the Peninsula and in Solano County, holding meetings Monday in the cities of Santa Clara and San Mateo, and then traveling north to Fairfield on Tuesday. Beyond that, it appears the proposition’s backers will spend little time in the liberal, mass-transit-rich Bay Area. Most of the other campaign events will take place in Southern California and the Central Valley.
Polling by Prop. 6 consultants shows that the measure appeals to voters in suburbs and rural areas, especially the Inland Empire, where some residents drive upward of 100 miles a day to get to their jobs.
“These are places where people have long drives, and they’re the ones who will be most angry about these taxes,” said campaign consultant David Gilliard.
Yet the measure has also found favor with some longdistance commuters in the Bay Area. Among them is Ken Loo, a San Francisco resident who drives to Pittsburg five days a week for work, clocking more than 100 miles a day.
“The gas tax definitely hits me,” Loo said. “It will be impacting me quite a bit.”
Advertisements for Prop. 6 say the gas tax costs families nearly $800 a year, a figure that opponents dispute, saying it applies to households with two gas-guzzling vehicles. California’s secretary of transportation offered a much lower estimate: $120 a year for a family with one fuel-efficient car.
While the campaign has focused its message on struggling families, its largest donations come from prominent Republicans who view the gas tax’s defeat as part of their national agenda.
House Speaker Paul Ryan donated $50,000 from his congressional committee. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, who is running for re-election, chipped in $300,000. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana contributed $25,000. Cox has made the repeal message a centerpiece of his campaign for governor.
Some political observers speculate that DeMaio and his allies are playing the long game, building a coalition of conservative voters to tap for other causes and campaigns. DeMaio, who once served on the San Diego City Council, showed hints of political ambition when he considered a primary challenge to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine (San Diego County), this year. He ultimately decided against it.
DeMaio acknowledged that he hopes to rally Prop. 6’s ground troops behind other causes, such as an initiative to trim public pensions, which he is pressing with former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. He deflected questions on his political future.
“Right now, leading citizen initiatives is where I can make the most impact,” he said.