Written by Thomas Geiser
Where do our tax dollars go? More specifically, where do our gas tax dollars go? The gas tax in California is astronomical and the money that it generates is meant to be spent on infrastructure. However, millions of taxpayer dollars remain unspent and the infrastructure continues to be neglected.
Now, there are a number of excuses made by politicians for why this money is not going where it’s supposed to. The most popular excuse is that they need time to find the right contractors to complete these infrastructure projects, but while they debate endlessly on these issues, infrastructure remains in disrepair and more and more tax dollars are accrued and sit unspent in the government’s pocket. If Democrats don’t even know how to spend the money that they get, then it seems reasonable to decrease the tax rate—their revenue source—and ease the burden on taxpayers.
It's funny how Sacramento always touts its surpluses and then we are told that in order to keep the state from imminent disaster we need more tax increases, which @GavinNewsom will steal for his own political use #DontCalifornicateAmerica https://t.co/d3xNoya4qV
— Too Bright For Your Gaslight (@LNSmithee) February 10, 2020
The average price of gas in California is $3.56 per gallon, with a tax of 12 cents per gallon. California has the second-highest gas tax in the nation, second only to Hawaii. Republicans across California, especially those in San Diego, have been trying to repeal this gas tax for years now. Although the majority of San Diegans may support repealing the tax—53 percent of the county voted to repeal it—they are held back by other state voters who support the legislation.
About 57 percent of voters across the state supported keeping the gas tax. These voters are mostly in the big cities where they do not drive as much and have access to other means of getting around like public transportation or cycling. They are not as affected as more remote communities and may not understand the pressure the gas tax puts on their fellow Californians.
Former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio put it best when he said, “Are the roads getting better? No. Are the potholes getting filled? No. When you see the actual deterioration of our roads, you see the worsening of our congestion, that is the reality. And no amount of spin from government bureaucracies is going to change it.”
Our roads get worse and worse and those tax dollars should be spent where the politicians said it was going to be spent. The government should either do what they promised to do or they should stop confiscating resources from working families.
