By The Editorial Board

May 26, 2021

As if gas prices weren’t high enough in California, the gas tax is going up again on July 1.

An annual inflation adjustment was part of the transportation tax package pushed through the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2017. The law known as SB 1 added 12 cents to the per-gallon cost of gasoline on November 1, 2017, then another 5.6 cents on July 1, 2019, and 3.2 cents more last July 1. The next upward adjustment will bring the California excise tax on gas to 51.1 cents per gallon. SB 1 also increased the taxes on diesel fuel and raised the cost of registering a vehicle.

California has the highest gas taxes in the nation. According to the American Petroleum Institute, the state’s taxes and fees add 63.05 cents to the price of a gallon of gasoline. Including federal taxes, Californians pay 81.45 cents per gallon in government-imposed charges. It’s even higher for diesel fuel, with total state taxes and fees of 83.06 cents per gallon, 107.46 cents when federal taxes are added.

So Californians are paying a lot in taxes, but how much are we getting in road repair and maintenance?

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