Ventura County’s Democrats refuse to stop another gas tax hike

On July 1, the annual gas tax increase took effect, hiking the already burdensome state gas tax up by another 8%. This increase will add to the burden Californians are already paying at the pump with the second-highest gas prices in the nation behind only the state of Washington.

The tax hike is expected to cost drivers an additional $600 million.

Meanwhile, in Sacramento, Assembly Republicans forced a floor vote to suspend this tax increase because Republicans want to provide Californians with some much-needed relief from the inflation caused by Bidenomics.

As usual, the Democrats in our state legislature including Ventura County’s three Assemblymembers, Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks), Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) and Jesse Gabriel (D-Bell Canyon), voted in lockstep with the “progressive” leadership who had no interest in stopping it.

Only California’s Democrats would find a tax increase to be the way to kick off our Fourth of July weekend. AAA estimated that a record-breaking number of 50.7 million Americans were set to travel 50 miles or more over the Fourth of July weekend, making the holiday one of the most travel-heavy times of the year. These tone-deaf elected officials appear to have forgotten what led up to the Declaration of Independence in the first place.

According to Kiplinger.com, California drivers currently pay the highest gas tax in the nation, but that’s not good enough for Governor Newsom and his cronies in the Legislature. These Democrats think that you should have to pay even more so they can spend even more.

And what do Californians get for all those taxes? The fourth-worst roads in the nation.

Recently, a new poll came out which showed that 4 in 10 Californians are considering leaving the state because the cost of living in California is so darn high. How does Sacramento react to such news? The Democrats refuse to listen to the pleas from hardworking Californians and instead decide to make the state even more expensive.

While California Republicans fought to lower gas prices, California Democrats including Irwin, Bennett and Gabriel turned their backs on frustrated Californians by refusing to halt the gas tax increase.

Sooner or later, there will be so few Californians left that the state won’t be able to afford to fix our roads nor will they be able to afford all the promises of free money it’s made to the ones that are left.

The bottom line is simple: California Democrats have never met a tax increase they didn't like.

There is some good news, however.

Once again, Californians will get a chance to change the direction of our state when they go to the polls next year. I urge all residents of Ventura County to vote with your pocketbook.

Of course, you’ll want to hold onto to your wallet tightly because if the Democrats continue to retain a supermajority, they will be coming for it again.

They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Ventura County already knows what will happen if we re-elect Irwin, Bennett and Gabriel along with our current State Senators Henry Stern and Monique Limon.

Let’s restore some sanity to our county and state by sending a message that “California is not undertaxed; we’re spending too much money” by electing some Republicans for some real fiscal change we can believe in.

John Andersen is a former Trustee of Conejo Valley Unified School District and currently serves as the Chairman of the Ventura County Republican Party.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura County’s Democrats refuse to stop another gas tax hike