Repeal of gas tax hike trailing early
Voters on track to protect funds for highways, public transit
California voters were on track Tuesday night to protect a recent gas tax increase, as early election results showed a repeal measure trailing.
With just under 30 percent of precincts reporting, about 55 percent of voters were opposed and 45 percent in favor.
Proposition 6 takes aim at a $5 billion annual funding stream to pave potholed highways, repair crumbling bridges and beef up public transit throughout the state. The money comes from a 12-cents-pergallon gas tax, a 20-cents-per gallon diesel fuel tax, a $25 to $175 vehicle registration fee and a $100 clean air vehicle fee that the Legislature enacted last year as SB1, all of which would vaporize if voters approve the repeal measure.
“These politicians are going to continue to increase our cost of living through taxes, mandates and fees. We’re going to continue to fight them,” said Carl DeMaio, a San Diego talk radio personality and chairman of the Prop. 6 campaign. He recently wrapped up a nineday bus tour from San Diego to Sacramento, holding rallies at auto repair shops and in strip mall parking lots.
SB1 accounts for a significant share of California’s $35 billion annual transportation budget — a mix of state, federal and local dollars. The state kicks in roughly a third of that sum from various fuel taxes and registration fees, with the average California driver paying $265 a year, according to a report published last month by the Mineta Transportation Institute. Drivers’ contributions will likely increase to $310 by 2020 if SB1 survives.
Prop. 6 would wipe out many of those taxes and fees, along with the revenue they generate to replace shabby buses, realign highway lanes to reduce congestion, add bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and fix dilapidated roads that spread across the state, said Asha Weinstein Agrawal, director of the Mineta Transportation Institute’s National Transportation Finance Center and a co-author of the new report.
The future of transportation in California would be “a bleak picture indeed,” said Agrawal, who said she was voting against Prop. 6. She noted that the cost of maintaining streets and highways would increase when the state pulls back $5 billion a year in funding, because roads are more expensive to fix once they deteriorate.
Intent on protecting those funds, state agencies have turned highways into campaign ads, speckling them with signs bearing the slogan, “Your tax dollars at work.” The Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the American Society of Civil Engineers have decried Prop. 6 in their infrastructure reports. When the California Transportation Commission directed $669 million toward roads, bridges and new drainage systems, it touted SB1 as the funding source.
“Where else have people voted to tax themselves to pay for what they need?” Gov. Jerry Brown asked at a No on 6 rally Tuesday night in a ballroom of the Citizen Hotel in Sacramento. He was among the measure’s fiercest critics.
But proponents of the ballot initiative say they have taxpayers’ interests at heart. They contend that the price of gasoline would drop if their measure passes, assuming that oil companies pass the savings along to consumers.
The Prop. 6 campaign also had bigger goals. It was conceived to energize Republican voters, in the hope of boosting turnout for gubernatorial candidate John Cox — who spent the last several months stumping for the gas tax repeal — and Republican contestants in several key House races.
To that end, GOP political action committees and donors pumped in more than $1 million to get Prop. 6 on the ballot. Then they walked away, leaving DeMaio’s campaign to fend for itself. All told, DeMaio and his allies amassed about $4.8 million — a fraction of the $45 million raised by their opponents.
In an interview days before the election, DeMaio took the stance of a scrappy populist.
“This has always been a grassroots effort,” he said. “It shows that individuals can be a force in politics.”