Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
California drivers pay more for gasoline than any other state. Yet, they will be paying even more as Governor Jerry Brown and the Democrats approved another 12 cents per gallon tax on the people including an increase in DMV fees as well as a $100 annual fee on zero-emission vehicles as part of their latest money grab from the people of California.
State Democrats and Brown claim the $52 billion in taxes will fix the roads right? Not so fast. We have been down that road before with an increase in gas tax for the roads and where did that lead us? It is another game of switch-a-roo and moving the money around as they choose. They moved money from one area of the state budget and leave another area short to justify their reasons for a tax increase. Surely Brown and the Democrats would not tell the people the money was needed to fund Brown’s choo choo or that the state is spending billions to supply multiple agencies in supporting and funding programs for illegal aliens. Diverting road tax funds from the state budget creates a need where they can justify creating the largest transportation tax in the state’s history. It is all built on a lie to the people.
Only 60 percent will actually go to road projects. The first billion will fund high speed rail, assumed by some to ultimately cost $200 billion, and most of the people will never use it. Millions more will be spent on park restroom maintenance, corridors to improve animal travel, as well as millions to encourage people to visit state parks. Another billion will be used on bike lanes, which means less lanes for traffic, and $435 million plus on an unneeded light rail system.
The people of California will pay for the lies by our misleading state representatives though a higher gas tax and fees that doesn’t carry an expiration date. This tax increase is forever. These taxes and fees will be added to our already enormous transportation cost when California drivers already pay for a “designer” gasoline that no other state uses, adding another 12 cents per gallon. These taxes add up when you add a 39 cent California excise tax with a 10 cent cap and trade fee tax collapsed into the gas price with the .18 cents federal excise taxes and not to mention the 30 to 43 cents per gallon cost each person pays in California sales tax. This has become taxation upon taxation. The additional hidden cost will be passed down to the consumer a hidden tax as additional fees to pay for the cost of shipping at the store.
In the end, it will be the tax-paying people of California that will be hit the hardest while the Democrats and Governor Brown have given “pot holes” a whole new meaning as they continue to use and mislead the people with smoke and mirrors. Maybe they should be more concern with the people of California than making it a sanctuary state. California has a taxation problem only because the Democrats have a mismanagement problem.
Frank Aquila
Manteca
