Posted on 03/30/2017 11:11:51 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
California’s governor and legislative leaders on Wednesday proposed raising $52 billion to fix the state’s roads through a big gasoline tax increase, higher car registration fees and a charge on emission-free vehicles.
The 10-year plan would boost gasoline excise taxes for the first time in more than two decades, raising them 12 cents per gallon — a 43 percent increase. The tax would rise automatically with inflation.
For the first time, owners of zero emission vehicles would pay a $100 annual fee because they use public roads but don’t pay gasoline taxes that fund highway maintenance.
The plan also includes a sliding fee on vehicles, with owners of cheaper vehicles paying less. The fee, separate from annual vehicle registration fees, would range from $25 a year for vehicles worth less than $5,000 to $175 for cars worth $60,000 and up.
Gov. Jerry Brown said the plan would cost most drivers less than $10 per month and would be offset by reduced vehicle-repair expenses. The governor and Democratic legislative leaders hope to rush it through the Legislature next week.
“Yes, it costs money. And if the roof in your house is leaking, you better fix it, because it gets worse all the time,” Brown said at a Capitol news conference. “This is mostly about fixing what we already have. If for some reason people try to fight this, and God help us if they were successful, they won’t defeat this, they’ll just delay it and make the expenses go up.”
Increasing taxes is nearly always the answer. Problem is, it’s to a damnfool question.
Ditto.
They won’t fix the damn roads. It will be for the poor illegals who need more free stuff.
Moonbeam was ridiculous the first time he “served” as governor, and yet he got elected again. Did people really think he would improve with age?
Exactly!
In a state like CA, this is going to be a problem, and perhaps everywhere else. Fuel taxes pay for roads, so these vehicles that use no taxable fuel, will have to pay up some other way.
This state is a damn disaster. All the unions elected this dried up dog turd for a second time!
IIRC Calif. has the second-highest gas tax in the country and our roads are third-world. More taxes are surely the answer!
It never ends with these crooks. They mismanage and waste the massive amounts of money they steal from us each year and then cry poor at every turn.
1. We spend so much in this miserable state on K-12 education and still have a crappy public school system.
2. The public employee pension is a ticking time bomb and the taxpayers are going to be asked to bail it out because the state government dare not make the pension beneficiaries to take the hit.
3. We are the biggest welfare state in the union and these fools want to extend those benefits to illegals even.
Meanwhile, we get taxed up the yin yang while our roads, reservoirs, dams, and other infrastructure are literally crumbling. Whenever these issues make the headline - as in the Orville Dam meltdown - their only solution is to ask us for more money.
FU Moonbeam!!!!
There’s no way it will cost the average driver less than $10 per month, and how ridiculous is it to suggest that it will be offset by reduced vehicle maintenance costs.
Tax the cars off the roads then you wouldn’t have to fix them.
If Gov. Brown were to lead the states to put a stop to unconstitutional federal taxes, taxes that a previous generation of state sovereignty-respecting Supreme Court justices had clarified that Congress cannot justify under its constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers, ...
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States."—Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
… then the following would possibly happen.
California, along with the other states, would probably find a tsunami of new revenues that they wouldn’t know what to do with, establishing their own healthcare programs and fixing roads for starters. (Gov. Brown wouldn’t have to push for gas taxes.)
Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!
Remember in November ’18 !
Since Trump entered the ’16 presidential race too late for patriots to make sure that there were state sovereignty-respecting candidates on the primary ballots, patriots need make sure that such candidates are on the ’18 primary ballots so that they can be elected to support Trump in draining the unconstitutionally big federal government swamp.
Such a Congress will also be able to finish draining the swamp with respect to getting the remaining state sovereignty-ignoring, activist Supreme Court justices off of the bench.
Noting that the primaries start in Iowa and New Hampshire in February ‘18, patriots need to challenge candidates for federal office in the following way.
While I Googled the primary information above concerning Iowa and New Hampshire, FReeper iowamark brought to my attention that the February primaries for these states apply only to presidential election years. And after doing some more scratching, since primary dates for most states for 2018 elections probably haven’t been uploaded at this time (March 14, 2017), FReepers will need to find out primary dates from sources and / or websites in their own states.
Patriots need to qualify candidates by asking them why the Founding States made the Constitution’s Section 8 of Article I; to limit (cripple) the federal government’s powers.
Patriots also need to find candidates that are knowledgeable of the Supreme Court's clarifications of the federal government’s limited powers listed below.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphasis added].” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
Or worse than free stuff for illegals, the money will be diverted for continued construction of the Bullet Train to Nowhere.
Zero emission vehicles — I wonder if that includes bicycles.
Phooey... no more money ...no more tax increases.
<>Moonbeam and the SuperMajority in the California legislature will only use bond money and tax increases to make inter-agency loans funding Social Justice tomfoolery and blackholes in the retirement funds.
No more money.
There are no zero emission vehicles.
Not one (well, I guess hydrogen fueled vehicles).
Electric cars are REMOTE emission vehicles.
And if the zero emmisions dont pay ? Then what ?
The Sacramento Bee has a calculator at thier site.
I entered a pickup, worth $35k and getting an average of 16mpg.
The calculator says that would cost an extra $400 per year in taxes.
Wait a minute. I thought there was a bill introduced to raise the gas tax to pay some state pension obligations?
Oh, now I understand. Cars and drivers are evil and must be punished. They need to give money that the Legislature and Governor can spend on whatever they want to spend things on.
Sometimes, if you are a democrat, you just need a good enough excuse to justify the tax you want to impose and you will continue to use trial balloons until you find something that works.
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