Sacramento fiddles as gas prices soar

What’s taking California so long to deliver tangible relief? As is too often the case, we are seeing Sacramento take a truly pressing problem — in this case,  sky-high gasoline prices, which hit low-income Californians the hardest, along with the millions of workers who have to commute long distances — and waste time on unnecessarily convoluted schemes.

According to The New York Times, average gas prices in California now stand at $5.91, compared to $4.82 just a month ago.

Taken together with inflation hitting Californians on multiple fronts, the high cost of gasoline is punishing working Americans.

Three states — Connecticut, Georgia and Maryland — have responded to soaring gas prices by temporarily suspending their gas taxes in order to provide quick relief to their residents.

California state government could do the same and use a portion of the surplus in tax revenue paid by Californians to ensure transportation needs continue to be funded.

While the cost of gasoline will certainly remain high, with a 51 cent per gallon tax cut, doing so would help many Californians.

This wouldn’t take long, this wouldn’t take some great sacrifice.

In Connecticut, with a Democratic governor and Democratic-controlled Legislature, the suspension of the gas tax for a few months was approved unanimously

What’s happening in Sacramento?

Efforts by Republicans in the superminority to suspend the gas tax were overwhelmingly rejected by Democrats.

Most recently, Assembly Bill 1638, introduced by Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, which called for suspending the gas tax for six months, was surprisingly taken up by the Assembly’s Transportation Committee for a hearing.

Assembly Democrats, however, had a trick up their sleeve. They weren’t interested in actually debating the merits of suspending the gas tax to provide relief to California.

Instead, the Democrats gutted-and-amended Kiley’s bill to instead raise taxes on California refineries and use the revenue from that to finance rebates for California drivers. The new proposal, by Assemblyman Alex Lee, D-San Jose, was advanced on a party line vote 8-4.

“I’m a little appalled and shocked that you all are appalled and shocked by this,” said committee Chair Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, in response to the understandable frustration by Republicans at the bizarre turn of events.

Sacramento lawmakers like Friedman are clearly out of touch with the needs of ordinary Californians.

Gas prices are high. Gas taxes are high. Suspending the gas tax would offer quick relief to Californians struggling with high gas prices. It’s not complicated.

Newsom and Legislature should stop wasting time with proposals like Lee’s and other plans to maybe send out debit cards in the summer.

If they intend on providing relief to Californians, they can do so quickly and simply by suspending the gas tax while they figure things out.