Title: California's Soaring Gas Taxes Aren't Even Going to the Roads - Foundation for Economic Education
Headings: California's Soaring Gas Taxes Aren't Even Going to the Roads
California's Soaring Gas Taxes Aren't Even Going to the Roads
But a potential amendment could outlaw that.
The Justification
The Side-Step
William F. Shughart II
Kristian Fors

Content: A decade ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to use $1.1 billion in Public Transportation Account (money to offset huge shortfalls in general-fund revenue caused by excessive government spending). The burden of the gas tax falls disproportionately on low-income Californians. The legislature responded by creating the Mass Transportation Fund, allowing $637 million to be moved out of the PTA. From 2007 to 2010, $1.3 billion in transportation funds was spent not to build or repair state roads but to finance other programs that were apparently more politically rewarding (i.e., generated more votes) than fixing bridges and filling potholes. To forestall such budgetary shenanigans in the future, Californians will vote in June on a state constitutional amendment to prohibit lawmakers from diverting transportation money to other purposes. No matter how the revenue is spent, though, the burden of the gas tax falls disproportionately on low-income Californians because they spend a larger percentage of their incomes than wealthier people on gas. California’s fee for zero-emissions vehicles, which is paid by upper-income people who can afford to buy Teslas, is a paltry $100. Although truthfulness is not something we expect from politicians, Sacramento ought to admit that the recent state gas-tax increase is just a convenient and nontransparent way of raising more revenue to feed a chronic overspending habit. Reprinted from the Independent Institute. William F. Shughart II
William F. Shughart II is Research Director and Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute, the J. Fish Smith Professor in Public Choice at Utah State University, and past president of the Southern Economic Association.