In Gov. Gavin Newsom's annual State of the State address on Tuesday night, he announced he would propose a plan to aid Californians with the steady increase in gasoline prices. This comes at a crucial time for Californians, with the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. recently announcing it would ban the import of Russian oil and gas.
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KCBS Radio Political Reporter Doug Sovern, who hosts "The State of California," joined "Bay Current" on Wednesday to explain why Newsom and his allies aren't calling the plan a tax rebate.
"The governor had already talked about suspending the scheduled increase in California's gas tax this July, and got a lukewarm response from the State Legislature who didn’t want to do that," Sovern said. "Then there was a movement by Republicans to have a moratorium on the gas tax altogether, as a way of countering the surge in gasoline prices, but that’s going nowhere amongst Democrats. Newsom recently has said that they don't want to do a gasoline tax rebate, but rather put money back in the pockets of Californians who are dealing with the high prices."
Sovern noted that Newsom's plan is likely to be funded directly from the state's budget surplus.
"Newsom got immediate pushback from the State Assembly Speaker and the State Senate President, who said they don't want to do a gasoline tax rebate because it also takes away from transportation funding and highway funding," Sovern added. "Instead, they are looking to use the state's budget surplus and to do a tax rebate from the general fund, and they can target where the money is coming from. That's why Newsom has to negotiate with them."
Sovern emphasized that Newsom, along with the State Senate, are currently deciding when and how California residents will receive the rebates.
"He has to negotiate how much, how people would get it, and he doesn't know if it'll be a check in the mail or a credit on your state tax refund," Sovern said. "Newsom will propose it in his May budget revision, but it could be sooner. But this is why he has backed off the wording that this is a gasoline tax rebate."
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