California Gas Tax Repeal Heads to Voters on November Ballot

On Monday, Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced that an initiative to repeal the California Gas Tax (SB-1) is eligible for the November 6, 2018, General Election ballot.

SB-1 was created to help pay for an estimated $67 billion backlog in highway, bridge and road repair. Under the legislation, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, SB 1 (Beall), invests $52.4 billion over the next decade by doing the following:

• $7.3 billion by increasing diesel excise tax 20 cents
• $3.5 billion by increasing diesel sales tax to 5.75 percent
• $24.4 billion by increasing gasoline excise tax 12 cents
• $16.3 billion from an annual transportation improvement fee based on a vehicle’s value
• $200 million from an annual $100 Zero Emission Vehicle fee commencing in 2020.
• $706 million in General Fund loan repayments.

Republican Governor Candidates came out against the tax and worked to gather signatures.

In order to become eligible for the ballot, the initiative needed 585,407 valid petition signatures, which is equal to eight percent of the total votes cast for governor in the November 2014 General Election.

An initiative can qualify via random sampling of petition signatures if the sampling projects a number of valid signatures greater than 110 percent of the required number. The initiative needed at least 643,948 projected valid signatures to qualify by random sampling, and it exceeded that threshold today.

John Cox, gubernatorial candidate and chairman for the effort to repeal the gas tax issued the following statement regarding its qualification.

“This is a message to the millions of forgotten Californians ignored by the Sacramento political elite, help is on the way,” Cox said. “Let this also be a message to every special interest in Sacramento, we’re coming for you. You can outspend the people, but you can’t outvote the people, because there are more of us than there are of you.”

Meanwhile, Governor Jerry Brown took to Twitter to support the gas tax:

“This flawed and dangerous measure pushed by Trump’s Washington allies jeopardizes the safety of millions of Californians by stopping local communities from fixing their crumbling roads and bridges. Just say no,” said Brown.

On June 28, 2018, the Secretary of State will certify the initiative as qualified for the November 6, 2018 General Election ballot, unless the proponent withdraws the initiative prior to that date pursuant to Elections Code section 9604(b).