Letter to the editor: Suspending taxes helps gas issue
Re: Thomas Elias’ March 2 column, “Is it time for a gas-tax holiday?”:
I read Thomas Elias’ column and I agree that the state of California could do some good for residents who are already struggling to recover from the economic damage brought on by the pandemic and the ongoing increases to the cost of living, not only exacerbated by record high fuel prices, but also by the continuing crush of high state income taxes, sales taxes and increasing rents by enacting a one-year gas-tax holiday.
However, I would go one step further than just pausing just the state’s fuel excise tax, which is currently 51.1 cents per gallon. I would also urge the state to suspend the Gas Cap & Trade Tax, which is $0.40-0.50 cents/gallon and the sales tax which averages $0.20-.025 cents/gallon. Suspending these three taxes alone would help Californians see an immediate savings of $1.11-1.26 per gallon. As a result, the average California family would save over $215 per month now.
But wait, there’s more. While these state fuel taxes are suspended, I would suggest we increase domestic oil production in the state and start the process of adding another refinery in order to keep up with increasing demand. In the period since California’s last oil refinery was constructed in 1976, our population has nearly doubled.
We cannot import fuel from other states due to our self-imposed summer/winter blends, which is especially limiting when our refineries go offline. At this very moment, California imports 58% of our oil from foreign countries, which is a 300% increase over 20 years ago.
This leaves our residents vulnerable to wild fluctuations in fuel prices on the world market during periods of international conflict, relative to other states who have decreased their dependency on foreign oil.
And the best part of all of this is it would cost struggling Californians nothing. Zero. Zilch.
The state can just pull from our record-high budget surplus because we’re overtaxed already.
Alan Garner, Camarillo
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Letter to the editor: Suspending taxes helps gas issue
