Approve a plan to reduce the gas tax

Iread an article the other day stating that Gov. Gavin Newsom claims that we have a $100 billion budget surplus in California and he wants to give us $400 per car owner, not to exceed $800 per family, as relief checks to help with inflated gas prices. It seems preposterous to me to offer relief checks while continuing to maintain the highest gas taxes and gas prices in the nation.

Wouldn’t it make much more sense to lower taxes during this crisis, bring us more in line with the majority of the country, and to use the proclaimed surplus of money to offset any loss in revenue incurred through lower gas taxes? I don’t know about you, but when I see the average national gas price at $4.59 per gallon and see what we’re paying in California, I feel like I’d be excited to pay $4.59. How messed up is that?

These proposed relief checks are just more of what has put our economy into spiraling inflation. Introducing more money into the marketplace that will likely be spent on things other than gasoline, instead of dealing with the problems causing runaway inflation, seems to be standard operating procedure for the current administration. Almost any economist will tell you that the last thing you want to do during runaway inflation is to introduce more spending into the economy, driving more shortages and higher prices. Weren’t these leaders paying attention while we all watched the overstimulation of the economy during COVID and the resulting supply shortages from too much demand and burden on the supply chain?

My wife and I live in Tehachapi and drive about 30,000 miles per year. A trip to the doctor or Costco in Bakersfield is 100 miles round-trip. With this socialistic solution proposed by the governor, we get the same $400 checks as people living in the cities that may only drive a few thousand miles per year or possibly not even drive at all. It is also highly doubtful that this solution will be managed any better than the billions of dollars in unemployment checks that went to prisoners and other scammers.

If the governor would approve a plan to reduce the gas taxes, not only would it be a fair and equitable solution for all, but it would save the expense and embarrassment of doling out checks to those who shouldn’t receive them. Reducing the taxes would also be better for the economy by reducing the shipping costs over the longer term in lieu of immediately injecting $11.5 billion into people’s wallets and further exacerbating the shortages and supply chain problems. This is all just common sense, as is drilling for more oil and becoming energy independent again, but I guess that’s why our current administration and state government won’t consider it.

I’m all for green and electric vehicles, but to build the infrastructure to accommodate the roughly 267 million registered vehicles in the U.S. requires a plan. You can’t do it overnight by making it so painful to buy gas that everyone will just rush out and buy an expensive EV. That’s just not going to happen for myriad reasons. Additionally, it will take decades and a lot of government spending on charging stations, increased electrical grid and generating capacity, along with other infrastructure to even prepare for that.

California can’t even keep the lights on now during hot summer days; how are we going to manage the millions of EVs charging every evening? By the way, we’re already behind the curve. California currently has more EVs per existing charging station than any other state.

Please be careful who you vote for in upcoming elections. As we’re all experiencing now, we have to live with the results. Choose wisely.