New California gas tax in effect

Californians already pay among the highest gas taxes in the country and now they’re paying even more.

A new, 12 cent per gallon tax took effect at midnight with the money earmarked for transportation improvements across the state.

For local small businesswoman Lori Flamm, enough is enough when it comes to taxes in California.

“Honestly for the small business guy right now where I’m at, middle class, we’re getting hit at all ends”, Flamm said, “its making it really hard to make a living and operate our businesses and our life.”

The new gas tax is expected to raise more than $5 billion a year for ten years to pay for the repair and improvement of roads, highways and bridges statewide.

“Caltrans has made a commitment to fixing 17,000 lane miles of pavement, more than 500 bridges, culverts, traffic management systems up and down the state and that’s just Caltrans”, a spokesperson said, “of course this is creating revenue for the cities and counties as well, its a 50-50 split, so your local city and county will be seeing improvements as well.”

The gas tax hike is part of SB 1 which narrowly passed the State Legislature in April.

Its now the focus of a statewide repeal campaign and ballot measure to let voters decide.

“People are really mad about it, as far as folks in my district, we’ve heard more on the gas tax than anything else since I’ve been here”, said 9th District State Assemblyman Jim Cooper, “I think at the end of the day, people still have to go to work, go to the doctor, so they’ve got to put gas in their cars, so they’ve got to do more with less and that’s the unfortunate reality.”

For Lori Flamm and others like her in what’s left of California’s middle class, the numbers just don’t add up anymore.

“I love California but I’m not happy with the state its in right now, honestly”, Flamm said.

Starting next year, the California DMV is raising vehicle registration fees, between $25 and $175, depending on the value of the vehicle.