California's gasoline excise tax will increase by 2 cents a gallon starting July 1, but one local lawmaker is asking the state to stop the increase.
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond said people are already paying too much, leading to an exodus out of the state.
"This is not the time," he said. "We've got people and businesses leaving California, and we are creating an environment where people don't want to stay here.”
At the news conference in Escondido on Thursday, he said the high gasoline prices are hurting families the most. Briana Chiddick, a mother of four from Valley Center, was at the news conference with Desmond. She said 2 cents might not sound like much, but it adds up.
“Just to go visit friends. Just to go get groceries. Just to go to sports or any extracurricular activities or necessities as a family, 2 cents is just an addition to every increase that has been happening," Chiddick said. "Our groceries are more expensive. Everything that we do is more expensive.”
Changes to the excise tax happen yearly on July 1, based on changes in the California Consumer Price Index.
According to the California Energy Commission, fees and taxes add $0.89 to the price of a gallon of gasoline (rounded to the nearest cent).
- State Underground Storage Tank Fee: $0.02
- State and Local Sales Tax: $0.11
- State Excise Tax: $0.58
- Federal Excise Tax: $0.18
Come July 1, the state excise tax will rise to 60 cents a gallon.
According to CalTrans, the excise tax pays for 80% of highway and road repairs. On average, Californians pay roughly $300 a year in state gas taxes.
San Diego State University economist Joe Silverman doesn’t think that taxes alone account for high gas prices in California.
He analyzed the difference in state and federal gasoline excise taxes for all 50 states.
"I came to the conclusion was that the difference between what we pay for gasoline and the national average cannot all be accounted for by the gasoline tax," he said. "There's still about 50 or so — 50 to 75 cents a gallon that cannot be accounted for by the fact that we pay a substantially higher gasoline tax than they do in other states.”
He thinks the oil companies are charging more to brace for the state’s mandate that all new cars sold in California will be zero-emission by 2035.
"If it actually came to pass that California did have all-electric vehicles," Silverman said. "Well, what would happen to those refineries? I mean, they're billions of dollars. The oil companies have billions of dollars invested in those refineries, and basically they would they would be stranded. They would go to waste."
The price of gasoline has been dropping for the past 17 days. According to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service, it is 28.1 cents lower than one month ago. The average price for regular unleaded gasoline around the county is $5.07.
Silverman thinks that we're so used to prices being above $5 that a $0.02 jump won't be as noticeable, but he said it will probably hurt lower-income workers the most because they are the ones who have to drive for work the most.
