Posted on Apr 21st, 2021 by Sonoma Valley Sun.
“The state needs billions to repair highways despite gas tax,” was just one headline in response to a report published by Caltrans last week. California taxpayers’ response was, “You have to be fun.” California has the highest gas tax in the nation, and if the bureaucrats are to be believed, repairing our roads and highways is just not enough and it takes $ 6 billion more annually. But the truth is, we have a lot of money to meet needs, if the money is spent for the purposes for which it is intended.
The claim that billions more are needed was disclosed in Caltrans’ draft State Highway System Management Plan (SHSMP) for 2021. The SHSMP identifies an annual shortfall of $ 6.1 billion, which imposes a constraint that requires prioritization of transportation destinations.
The gross mispending, waste and diversion of gas tax revenues into projects that have nothing to do with roads or highways. Indeed, Caltrans admits that in trying to “focus available resources on the core system” it “is simultaneously increasing our investments in bicycle and pedestrian transport to help meet climate change goals and make transport system more fair”.
Where is the “equity” of a regressive gas tax that is now the highest in the nation at 62.47 cents per gallon? For the average Californian, being able to drive to work, take kids to school, and run errands isn’t a luxury, but state legislation rated it as a luxury when it passed the 2017 Senate Act 1 to cut gasoline taxes and registration fees for vehicles increased.
How does the California gas tax relate to the states that Californians are fleeing to in droves? Here is the Tax Foundation data: Texas, 20 cents a gallon; Florida, 42.29 cents per gallon; and Nevada 33.78 cents per gallon. (These three states have no income tax and their roads are better).
Although SB 1 raised taxes with the promise that the money would be used to repair crumbling roads and bridges, about 30 percent of the revenue generated by the tax increase is for other traffic priorities. And the law doesn’t include a single reform to get rid of the California Department of Transportation’s well-documented waste. The California State Auditor has repeatedly cited Caltrans for a lack of cost controls, resulting in waste, fraud and abuse.
It’s annoying to hear Caltrans groan that road repairs will need more money than Governor Newsom signed an executive order in 2019 in a move that enraged both taxpayers and drivers in the Central Valley, in which gas tax dollars were used to fund rail systems and other funds not diverted have been diverted – road projects.
When it comes to building and maintaining highways, California offers a low level of service at an inflated cost. We can remedy this by channeling gas tax revenue towards projects that best serve the state’s driving public and by reducing our transportation bureaucracy.
– Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.