ORANGE, Calif.—As the City of Orange officials and business leaders gathered in Yorba Park near the 55 Freeway and Chapman Avenue, a gas station LED sign showing prices starting at $4.89 per gallon loomed overhead across the street.
“I guarantee you that any of you wanting to go over and interview anyone filling up at the pump you would not find one person that would not be happy if the gas were less in price,” Mayor of the City of Orange Mark Murphy said to reporters. “[Saving] 50 cents per gallon for six months. Can you imagine?”
The purpose of the gathering was to discuss an assembly bill (AB 1638) introduced in January to suspend California’s gas tax for six months, and to briefly share how increasing gasoline prices due to inflation have been affecting the City of Orange and its local businesses.
Although the gas tax is the primary source of funding for maintaining state highways and roads, inflation and gas prices are becoming financially difficult for the local community, especially for working-class commuters.
Orange Chamber of Commerce President Al Ricci said minimum wage workers are spending 25 percent of their income on gas in order to get to work.
“I will tell you that we are having a difficult time finding a workforce to support our 16,000 businesses in our city, but 25 percent of their paycheck is going to waste [on gas], and we have to stop that,” Ricci said.
Dara Maleki, CEO of The Pizza Press restaurant with several locations throughout Orange, said it is time to “make it right” as the gas price hike is negatively affecting his employees.
“My employees and employees’ paychecks are getting stretched further and further, and with rising costs of ingredients, rent, power, and more, it’s harder to come back,” Maleki said. “It’s getting too expensive to drive and most residents don’t have a choice; they have to go to work.”
Republican lawmakers present were confident that if the bill is passed, eliminating gas taxation for the next six months will allow local businesses and workers to move forward amid rising inflation.
“The cost of living is devastating families, students, seniors and our most vulnerable,” Assemblywoman Laurie Davies (R-Laguna Niguel) said in a statement. “For two years we have seen huge budget surplus - your money. It is time we bring some relief to the taxpayer who is suffering under the worst inflation we’ve seen in 40 years.”
Californians are also paying an average of $1.21 per gallon above the rest of the nation, which includes $1.27 per gallon due to state taxes and emergency coronavirus mandates, according to Assembly Republicans’ March 3 news release.
Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) told reporters that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s separate proposal to suspend the gas tax increase for one year starting this summer—which would cut the tax by only 3 cents per gallon—has been rejected by the Democrats in the state legislature.
“We are proposing a full suspension of the gas tax to give hard-working Californians 50 cents of a gallon of gas. It’s the least that we can do in these inflationary times where it’s harder and harder for people to make ends meet,” Gallagher said.
Once passed, the bill would come into immediate effect in suspending the state gas tax as an urgency statute.
