CAMPAIGN 2018: Gas Tax – “No on Prop 6” breakdown
“No on Prop 6” supporters say five billion dollars a year would be wiped out for California transportation needs if the proposition passes.
This is money that started to roll in after the state legislature’s 2017 gas tax hike, Senate Bill 1.
“We’ve seen those potholes paved over. We’ve seen smoother roads,” said City of Santa Cruz Fire Captain Cody Muhly.
Muhly says without this money, it will be tougher for first responders in life and death situations. “It is going to fall apart. And it’s going to be challenging to us to do our jobs firefighters to access emergencies safely and timely.”
SB-1 raised the gas tax by 12 cents a gallon 20 cents for diesel, and installed new fees on vehicle registration, among other additions.
By December 2018, the state says more than two billion dollars will have been collected.
We are seeing the impact on the Central Coast. The “No on Prop 6” campaign promotes more than 360 million dollars being spent in Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey counties.
“Not only stopping all the projects already underway, but the trickle down effect into the private sector. Not only union jobs, but non-union too,” said Jim Riley with Operating Engineers Local 3.
A breakdown from TAMC shows Monterey County is asking for million of dollars in SB-1 funds for projects on Highway 68, 101 in south county, the Marina-CSUMB-Salinas connection, and state route 156.
“I don’t know where they think the money is going to come from to do the traffic mitigation, fix the
pot holes, do the kinds of construction that’s necessary to move people across California,” said Assemblyman Mark Stone (D-29).
But aside from the obvious desire to lower taxes, opponents push back against the claim that all gas tax money goes to these largely needed projects, even with proposition 69 passing in June to address that issue.
“Really read that proposition. You’ll see that it goes into a lot of other areas, and not necessarily for road,” said Assembly candidate Vicki Nohrden (R-29).
That concern is often aimed at the plan for high speed rail from Los Angeles to the Bay Area. The projected cost is now 77 billion dollars, and its opening is estimated to be in 2033.
But people in favor of keeping the gas tax says “yes on prop 6” is too big a risk to approve. – especially with California having six of the top 20 large metro areas with the worst rates roads, roads that cost drivers up to one-thousand-dollars a year in related repairs.
