Dan Walters, columnist for the Sacramento Bee, wrote on Monday about California’s crumbling roads, highways and streets. Anyone with a car and a driver’s license knows Walters is right; our roads are a mess! And when compared to other states (which Walters did, having just returned from a road trip in the Northwestern states) the condition of our roads is inexcusable.

But I disagree with Walters’ assertion that our transportation infrastructure is in shambles because drivers don’t pay enough gas taxes.

With heavy use, the system needs, but is not getting, an extremely high level of maintenance to stave off deterioration. The gasoline tax, levied on gallonage, hasn’t been changed for many years. And because of greater fuel efficiency, the amount of gas being consumed has increased very little even as travel has increased sharply.  Moreover, this flat revenue is being eroded by inflation.

Also on Monday, the California Taxpayers’ Association reported that the Board of Equalization released a report showing Californians pay on average 60 cents more per gallon of gasoline than residents of other states. That’s because gasoline purchased in California is heavily excised beyond the federal tax. For every gallon of gasoline bought in the state, 25 percent goes toward various fees and taxes, including motor fuel license tax, motor fuel tax, sales tax, underground storage maintenance fee, etc. etc. etc.

It’s obvious that California drivers (and the tourists who have the pleasure of driving and buying gas in our state) are contributing their fair share of money to keep the roads maintained to a higher standard.

So before we suggest that taxpayers should pay more, let’s look at how the gasoline money is handled? Or should I say mishandled?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.