SANTA ANA, Calif.—The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously this week to urge California Gov. Gavin Newsom to suspend the state’s gas tax for six months.
The matter, brought forward last-minute by both OC Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Don Wagner and Supervisor Katrina Foley in two separate resolutions, will ask the state to use its estimated $45–50 billion surplus to temporarily remove the 0.51 cent gas tax at a time where gas prices have reached record highs.
The idea has bipartisan support given the struggle many Californians are facing, Wagner said in the March 22 meeting.
“We are watching folks struggle at all levels of society, but especially when they pull into the gas pump and they’re seeing in our state 51 cents additional being paid … at a time when the state is running a surplus … There is no reason to continue taxing people when they are so injured,” Wagner said.
“I urge Sacramento to get its act together and make this happen,” Wagner said.
“We are seeing unprecedented costs increase at a time when we’re just getting over the pandemic,” Foley said, noting the increase in gas costs also impacts the costs of other goods and services. “People are trying to get back to living their best lives and really families cannot endure this.”
The supervisors will request an original six-month withdrawal of the tax, with an option to renew for another six months depending on market conditions.
In Foley’s resolution, she asked that there be a mechanism attached that would actually hold oil companies accountable to decrease their prices, which she said is part of their “greed,” though other supervisors did not believe it was necessary.
“I don’t have as much confidence as my colleagues in the oil companies and the marketplace and them voluntarily reducing their costs,” she said. “I don’t really see that that will happen.
“There are gas stations that are admitting that they’re charging $8 a gallon because they can. And so it’s very important that we send them a strong message that the price gouging that’s going on should stop.”
It was not immediately clear to the supervisors if the governor has the power on his own to suspend the gas tax without the legislature’s approval, though Orange County Counsel Leon Page said “off the top of his head,” he thinks the governor does have the authority under the emergency services act to suspend any regulatory statue, including a tax.
After the motion was approved, Vice Chairman Wagner and Supervisor Foley’s offices will draft a letter, which will be signed by Chairman Doug Chaffee, and sent to the governor’s office urging him to suspend the gas tax.
