Few Fume Over New 5-Cent Gas Tax

California’s new gasoline tax went into effect Wednesday with few apparent hitches, drawing resigned grumbles from motorists as nearly 12,000 service stations across the state began collecting an extra nickel for each gallon of gas they sell.

Spot reports from service stations and dealer associations throughout Southern California and the rest of the state indicated that most motorists came prepared to pay more for gas when they pulled up to the pumps throughout the day Wednesday.

Proposition 111--a ballot initiative designed to use a 9-cent gas tax hike to ease traffic jams, repair worn freeways and bridges and pay for more public transportation--was approved by 52% of the state’s voters in June. After Wednesday’s tax hike, a 1-cent increase will be added to the five-cent tax each year until 1995.

There were scattered accounts of panic buying in the last hours before the tax went into effect at midnight Wednesday morning and reports that some dealers raised prices even higher than the 5-cent increase. And a few Los Angeles service stations angered motorists by raising prices two hours before the deadline fell.

But at most service stations, drivers simply came up with the extra change--whether they liked it or not.

“As far as we’ve heard, it was met by a well-prepped public,” said Stephen R. Shelton, executive director of the Southern California Service Station Assn., which represents 1,900 stations. “People voted for it--they should expect it.”

Yet despite repeated public warnings about the impending tax in recent weeks, there were some who arrived blissfully ignorant of the new prices. Mike Murphy, a 19-year-old college student who drove up to a Santa Barbara gas station to fill up his Toyota station wagon for a day of surfing, was startled by the news.

“What tax?” he asked. Told that California voters had voted in favor of the measure to pay for transportation improvements, Murphy was still befuddled: “What vote?”

Finally, a more detailed explanation was provided. “You mean the tax started this morning?” he asked. “Bummer. . . . I should have filled up last night.”

Many did, saving a few cents a gallon for a few minutes spent in gas lines reminiscent of those that lasted for hours during the oil crisis of 1973. In Ventura County, station owners and managers said business at their pumps increased more than 20% on Monday and Tuesday as people tried to get in their last tank of gas before the price change.

Gabriel Cortez, manager of a Union 76 station near the Los Angeles Country Club, said that drivers lined up to save money on gas Tuesday night. “We sold 8,000 gallons of gas,” he said. “That’s 500 more gallons than usual.”

Two hours before the deadline, drivers filling up at a Unocal station on Sherman Way in Van Nuys complained to Los Angeles police that they were forced to pay the nickel tax before it had officially started.

A manager who represents independent Unocal dealers in the Los Angeles area confirmed that many Unocal stations--including the Van Nuys station--raised prices early. The manager, who declined to give his name, said the stations had only two employees on duty after 10 p.m. and would have had difficulty changing prices on meters while motorists waited to pay for their gas.

Service station association officials said they hoped that most of their members would not try to take advantage of the tax increase. But they acknowledged that some might.

In the Northern California town of Redding, near the Oregon line, one gas station owner, Bill Swigart, said he had no choice but tack an extra cent a gallon onto the 5-cent tax.

“If I just go up five cents, I get hurt,” he said, explaining that he would only break even if he raised his price by a slightly higher fraction of a cent. To round the price off, he added the full extra cent. “My rep said it would hurt me, but my customers aren’t balking,” he said.

Closer to the Oregon line, industry officials worried that service station owners in towns such as Yreka and Henley might lose business because of the tax hike.

“If their customers can go over the state line and get cheaper gas, this could end up hurting them bad,” Shelton said.

One San Francisco Bay Area gasoline distribution company executive said she was bracing for a motorist backlash. “I just hope that the consumers understand what’s going on here,” said Bonnie Addario, senior vice president of Olympia Oil Co. “They voted for it, but they’ll be the first ones to complain about it.”

Also contributing to this story were Times staff writers Phillip Gollner, Josh Meyer, Ronald Smith and Ben Sullivan in Los Angeles, Lisa Mascaro and Cherylanne Bealer in Orange County, Kirsten Lee Swartz in Ventura, Bonna M. de la Cruz in San Diego, Miles Corwin in Santa Barbara and Harold Maas in San Francisco.