While Sacramento clings to a $16 Billion surplus, CA GOP plans to campaign on returning money to the taxpayer.

We have been following the saga of California, and the citizen revolt against the gas tax passed by Sacramento Democrats.

The petition gatherers succeeded, and the measure to repeal it will be on the November ballot.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Monday that initiative supporters collected enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. The move was widely expected after organizers turned in far more signatures than required. The gas tax initiative is a central part of the Republican strategy to hold onto contested legislative and congressional seats in the face of Democrats motivated by opposition to President Donald Trump. The GOP hopes opposition to the gas tax will make inroads with moderate voters and encourage conservatives to cast a ballot.

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox is making the gas tax repeal a central plank in his platform.

Cox is the chairman of a campaign to repeal the gas tax increase — a cause that Republicans will hammer at every turn in their hopes to make inroads in the heavily Democratic state. “Gavin Newsom and the Democrats decided to do the easy thing in their view, and that is just keep sticking their hands in the pockets of Californians,” Cox told reporters at a news conference in front of the state Capitol in Sacramento. He spoke ahead of a legislative hearing on a ballot measure that would repeal last year’s SB1, which raised taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel and created a new surcharge on vehicle registrations.

Off to Sacramento to make some noise. Legislators decided to hold their hearing on the gas tax repeal without giving the public much notice…a week after they announce a $16 billion surplus. #StoptheGasTax — JohnHCox (@TheRealJohnHCox) June 18, 2018

Yes, you read that right. Thanks to President Donald Trump, California’s economy is booming and the state has collected a massive surplus.

But the money is inviting a different kind of political problem for majority Democrats. It could be used to fuel the campaign that would repeal the 12-cents-a-gallon gas tax that they and Brown championed last year to lock in $52 billion in road repair funding for the next decade. That record surplus gives gas tax opponents a simple message for their social media posts and radio ads.

The current governor intends to use road repair as an excuse to retain the surplus.

⚠ 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. ???? https://t.co/poYNjiPAVA — Jerry Brown (@JerryBrownGov) June 25, 2018

“What he is fighting for is his legacy, and so I think he would have every reason in the world to put a lot of emphasis on keeping the gas tax in place,” said Darry Sragow, a longtime Democratic strategist and publisher of California Target Book, which tracks political contests in the state. The governor, who last reported $14.8 million in his campaign account available to fight repeal, has already begun offering his defense of the higher tax at press conferences throughout the state where he has announced the start of projects that they have made possible.

It is little wonder, then, that California is No. 3 for psychopathy! Sacramento is enough to drive anyone crazy.



