Readers React: Do we really think gas prices will plunge if Prop. 6 passes and the 12-cent tax is repealed?

To the editor: Some claim that gas prices will go down if Proposition 6 passes. Really?

Oil companies have every right to keep the price of gas at what it would be with the 12-cent tax still in place. In other words, the price at the pump may not go down.

In that case, the estimated $5 billion in revenue will go to the refiners and the oil companies, not us. And we’ll still be on the hook for repairs to our roads and bridges.

Republicans say we should repeal the gas tax increase in California, but the tax has been raised in several Republican-controlled states because it’s the best way to pay for ongoing repairs. Republicans claim we have the money already, except there never seems to be a spare $5 billion per year lying around when you need it.

Howard Morris, Rancho Cucamonga

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To the editor: The gas tax is regressive, and not all drivers shoulder their fair share of the cost of repairing the state’s infrastructure.

Currently, those who can afford an expensive, fuel-efficient vehicle are not paying enough to maintain roads. If the state Legislature really cared about fairness, it would propose a change to vehicle taxes that is based on mileage driven and gross vehicle weight rather than gas used.

This is the only way that owners of 4,000-pound vehicles, regardless of fuel efficiency, would pay their fair share cost of maintaining the state’s infrastructure.

Michael McCall, Altadena

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To the editor: The Republican Party chose the gas tax as a vehicle to draw its voters to the polls.

This is the party that hates to have anyone get any benefit “for nothing” — no food stamps, no healthcare, no public education. So what could be more Republican than a tax you pay in direct proportion to what you use?

You drive a lot, you pay more. You drive a gas-guzzling vehicle, you pay more.

They should see that the gas tax just screams “Republican” — unless they can look in the mirror and see that they are the ones who want to get something for nothing.

Marcia Goldstein, Laguna Woods

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