July 1 gas price hike can be confusing to most Californians

QWhy will the state gas tax increase 5.6 cents per gallon on July 1? The closest answer I can find only left me confused. — Irvin Dawid, Burlingame

AIt should. Under a complicated “tax swap” in 2010, the 7.25% sales tax on gasoline was repealed that eliminated all but 2.25% of the sales tax, most of which goes to public safety, local health and social service programs and city and county operations.

But the tax swap added a second, price-based, excise tax of 17.3 cents per gallon for a total of 35.3 cents per gallon. The trade-off was intended to raise about the same amount of money as the old system but since the new excise tax component is based on the price of gas, it is adjusted each July to retain revenue neutrality.

At first, the price-based excise tax was slowly raised as pump prices increased, with the combined tax hitting 39.5 cents in 2013. But this dropped as gas prices dropped. In 2014, the combined taxes were reduced to 36 cents, cut

QAQagain in 2016 to 27.8 cents, and raised to 29.7 cents in 2017, when gas prices bumped back up.

So now it goes back up. And will be adjusted for inflation beginning July 1, 2020.

Help! From Interstate 580 west when exiting at Isabel Avenue in Livermore, the yellow lines for the two left turn lanes are starting to fade.

At night it is difficult to see the striping when turning to stay in the inside lane. — Kathy Dore, Milpitas Message delivered. Fresh paint is on order.

I’m almost positive the reason for the FasTrak misread from 5TFZ to 5TEZ is because of a license plate frame. Frames typically go right to the very bottom of the letters, and so the computer figures that the bottom part of the F is actually an E.

The state should outlaw license plate frames. They really don’t serve any purpose. — Leslie Waters, San Jose

AYou are right. This is in response to Michael Singer’s FasTrak problems. The San Jose man has a Prius and his plate starts with 5TEZ. But he gets billed monthly as a Ford driver who crosses the San Mateo Bridge and whose plate is 5TFZ.

The correct plate on the Ford belongs to a FasTrak customer who has a frame that partially obscures the bottom part of the plate numbers.

The FasTrak customer service center issued this driver a new toll tag, and the customer’s recent transactions have been registered through toll tag readings.

Nonetheless, the customer service center will flag Michael’s license plate in the FasTrak system, so that each time it’s detected, the transaction will be reviewed by a human.

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