If you own a hybrid or electric vehicle, you probably feel pretty good about yourself. After all, you’ve made a socially responsible decision to help the environment, reduce your carbon footprint and improve air quality.

But you might feel a bit guilty, too. After all, you are in part responsible for the poor condition of our roads. Your car uses less gas per mile, so you pay less tax per mile too. Less tax means less transportation funding. Less funding mean worse roads—right?

Ignore the fact that the State of California wastes billions of dollars on bureaucracy and bullet trains. Or that the state took in record fuel-tax related revenues last fiscal year. If you’d only bought a gas guzzler instead of a green car, maybe our roads wouldn’t be in such poor shape.

Instead of telling you this truth, society rewards you with tax credits, rebates and special perks like access to carpool lanes and privileged parking spots. One legislator is now proposing cutting sales tax on green car purchases.

Even if you had to pay full sales tax, deep down you know that by buying a green car you bought yourself a fuel tax break. Each mile you cruise down the… Read More

If high taxes guaranteed results, then California should have some of the best roads in the nation. For years we’ve had one of the highest gas taxes, yet our freeways consistently receive failing grades.

It makes no sense unless you admit that high taxes don’t guarantee good roads. That’s one of many reasons I had no trouble voting with my State Board of Equalization colleagues to approve a 6 cent cut to the state’s gas tax. Under a confusing and complicated law commonly known as the “gas tax swap,” the state has been over collecting tax dollars as gas prices have fallen. The new rate helps solve this problem.

Any tax cut is a rare bit of good news for overtaxed Californians. This gas tax cut also has the added benefit of partially offsetting the cost of a new hidden gas tax that took effect January 1 to help fund high speed rail and other so-called anti-global warming efforts.

California will still have one of the highest gas tax rates in the nation, but even so not everyone is pleased to see the tax go down. In fact, some government officials are devising new schemes—like mileage taxes and road user fees—aimed at getting even more of your… Read More