Last month, I reported that California’s lawmakers had approved a gas tax hike that was supposedly directed to funding the state’s infrastructure repair and maintenance programs.
However, one Republican assemblyman suspects that Californians are unhappy with this particular piece of legislation and would be willing to repeal it if given the chance.
Travis Allen, a Republican assemblyman from Orange County, filed the proposed 2018 ballot measure to eliminate the $5.2 billion annual package to fund road improvements.On Thursday, Allen launched a website asking for contributions of $5 to help him gather the 365,880 signatures from registered voters to place the repeal before voters. Allen can begin to gather signatures once the state attorney general issues a title and summary for his repeal.“If we work together a $5 dollar investment today will save you thousands in the long run,” Allen wrote on the site.Allen is proposing a diverse stream of possible funding sources, including tribal gambling revenue, to replace the tax.
I suspect that this initiative will be more successful than the recent #CalExit attempt. Dawn Wildman, Director of the California Tea Party Groups Coalition, notes that the gas tax hike is one issue that will bring Californians together.
“The voters are angry about how the hike went through, and the deals made to get the critical votes,” Wildman noted. “The California Tea Party groups’ first major success was stopping a tax hike [California Proposition 1A/2009]. We hope to help repeal this one. We also hope to end the Democratic Party’s super-majority status that has done nothing by hurt California. Between the tax hike, the Sanctuary State legislation, and the Single Payer proposal, it has been one legislative antic after another.”
Radio talk shows in the state are also spreading the word about the initiative, and targeting one of the legislators who made it possible for recall.
In Fullerton, three Southern California radio talk show hosts kicked off a campaign Thursday to recall state Sen. Josh Newman, a first-term Democratic legislator who barely edged out his Republican opponent in November, in retaliation for his vote.“That’s the only thing that works, is to take one of their team members out, politically,” said Ken Chiampou, who hosts with John Kobylt “John and Ken” on KFI-AM in Los Angeles. “If there’s no consequence, no punishment, then they’re going to keep right on doing this crap.”The Los Angeles hosts, joined by Carl DeMaio of KOGO-AM in San Diego, drove home the point by launching their recall campaign at an Arco gas station.
So, it appears as if our state is going to have its own version of “repeal and replace” as part of the 2018 election festivities!
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