Familiar Stories

Voters: this is what our taxes should go for (Daily Republic)

It's a familiar story of government--propose higher taxes (in this case gas taxes), promise the voters that the funds are only to be spent on road repair, then divert the monies to other uses. Even in the single-party State of California it was too much for some Democrats: [bold added]

[Governor Gavin] Newsom stepped onto a political land mine when he called for $5 billion in annual transportation funds to be diverted to projects that would “help reverse the trend of fuel consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” mostly coming from cars and trucks.

Representatives from both parties panicked, worrying that Newsom would raid funding for their roads and highways and spend it on his own pet projects. They feared, moreover, that he might target money generated by a gas-tax increase that’s angered people in the car-dependent Central Valley and Southern California. The gas tax — called SB1 — led Orange County voters to recall a state senator who supported it, and prompted an unsuccessful repeal campaign last year...

“Raiding funding from important local projects in the Central Valley is wrong,” said Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock (Stanislaus County), in a statement. “We pay outrageously high taxes — including for gas — and it’s time we start seeing some of the benefits we paid for.”

Harder’s concerns were fueled, in part, by a recent state transportation budget proposal. It included cuts to a road-widening project on Highway 99, which runs through the Central Valley.

Central Valley Democrats can identify with African-American voters. The Party thanks you for your faithful support every two years. Now let us get onto important things like climate change, forbidding travel to pro-life states*, banning plastic straws and shopping bags, taxing churches, impeachment, and open borders. Quit bothering us with your petty concerns.

*San Francisco’s policy, which eventually becomes California’s, which eventually becomes part of the Democratic Party platform.