California's gas tax went up again today

[ripcord]

What is a little more at this point right?

[JuJuChen]

1. I have a nice convertible, but I choose to take the bus, paid for by my employer :)

car driving for me is for fun and errands, no longer work.

[ripcord]

2. Must be nice

To bad many people, including families, continue to feel the pain, 58 cents a gallon in state excise tax, 18.4 cents a gallon in federal excise tax and 23 cents a gallon for cap and trade totals .994 cents for every gallon, impressive regressive tax.

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. I tell you what though

California's expensive gas forces people to drive reasonably sized cars. I spent a week in LA recently; the first in 20 years. The thing I really noticed was that driving on the freeway, I saw 2 kinds of vehicles - 18 wheelers carrying cargo and small sedans. Driving on the freeways in Texas, 2/3 of the vehicles are big ass trucks and SUVs. When gas is 50% higher, people just can't afford to drive the gas guzzlers unless they are wealthy or they absolutely need one. My former boss drives a big pickup truck just so he can throw a dead deer in the back once a year, maybe twice if he gets lucky.

[jimfields33]

5. It includes every car driver. California needs the revenue.

Gas tax is the best way to get it done quickly.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

6. .994 ... dollars :) (nt)

[NowISeetheLight]

3. Commute

Being retired now I don't drive as much, but my husband commutes to work. We bought a second car a few months ago and found a nice couple year old economy car. At least it gets good mileage.

I'd like an electric car but can't swing it. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 looks awesome but $40k+ it's not doable. I refuse to buy an Elonmobile too despite the fact they're everywhere. They just doubled the size of the Tesla charging station by my house. There must be 25 chargers there now and they're usually full when I drive by.

[Celerity]

9. A Chevy Bolt base model us still under 20,000 usd after the 7,500 usd credit, a Bolt EUV a wee over

https://www.chevrolet.com/electric/bolt-ev

Bolt EV



Bolt EUV




https://www.npr.org/2023/04/15/1169763545/electric-cars-vehicles-tax-credit-climate-bill

The IRS says the following vehicles are still eligible for both tax credits, worth $7,500:

Cadillac Lyriq
Chevy Bolt
Chevy Bolt EUV
Chevy Silverado EV
Chrysler Pacifica PHEV
Ford F-150 Lightning
Lincoln Aviator Grand Touring plug-in hybrid
Tesla Model Y (AWD, Long Range AWD and Performance)
Tesla Model 3 (Performance)
Volkswagen ID.4 (Standard, S, Pro, Pro S, Pro S Plus, as well as AWD Pro, AWD Pro S and AWD Pro S Plus)
The upcoming Chevy Blazer and Chevy Equinox EVs will also be eligible for both credits.

Volkswagen did not appear to be eligible for the credit when the IRS published the initial list Monday, but it was added to the IRS site on Wednesday.

These vehicles are now eligible for a single tax credit, worth $3,750:

Ford E-Transit
Ford Escape plug-in hybrid
Jeep Wrangler 4xe
Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe
Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring plug-in hybrid
Mustang Mach-E
Tesla Model 3 (Standard Range RWD)

[NowISeetheLight]

10. Credits

Because my income is VA Disability (tax-free) and SSDI (mostly not taxed), I don't have a lot of tax liability. The tax credit isn't refundable so I wouldn't really benefit from it. My husband only makes around $17 an hour and doesn't work FT so not a lot of taxes out of his check either. It's the same with the solar I put on the house last year. After 18 months my panel payment will go up because I won't have the big tax credit return to give them.

After years of being taxed to death when I worked ($10k+ every year paid, single, no kids, no deductions), it's too bad I can't retroactive the credits. If my name was Donald Trump I could've carried the loss for 100 years and paid no taxes on future earnings!

But someone has to pay taxes so billionaires don't have too.

[Celerity]

14. Well, some points. At that low of income it would probably remove all income tax liability owed

on your incomes. I understand the credits are non refundable, but (unless I am wrong) if it lowered your tax liability to a level you owed nothing or little, I think you might get the amounts withheld back (granted not the full $7,500, as it sounds like you did not have that much withheld). But maybe it would (on net) save you a few thousand.

IF I am completely wrong on that, even the full price is at least 22, 23K usd less than what the average new ICE car is now is in the US.

Also, there are rebates and grants in many sates (some specifically for low income people)

here is CA, for example

https://www.electricforall.org/rebates-incentives/

[NowISeetheLight]

17. Yes

I'm pretty sure whatever we dobpsy in we will get back. I own our home so we get the mortgage interest deduction.

[madville]

16. The Bolt only has a few months left

Before they stop production. Chevy is losing money on it at those prices but they didn’t have much choice especially after all the bad press from the fires and battery replacements. They new Equinox EV is supposed to roll out early next year in the low $30s, supposed to get the rebate from what I just read.

They are going to retool the Bolt plant to make the new EV Silverado and Sierra trucks that are going to sell for $75k-120k, chasing profits on more expensive vehicles of course.

They’re in better shape than Ford though, it’s been reported that Ford is losing 108% on each Ford Lightning EV, if they sell it for $75k it cost them over $150k to make it!

[Celerity]

18. yes, the Equinox EV looks better and is only a few thousand more for the base model

[Xolodno]

7. No surprise.

The ground is always moving here and messing up roads. Add a lot of heavy Semi's going from the ports and heading east, well, its obvious. And of course, a lot of electric cars on the road, they don't pay that tax, which means even less revenue to fix roads.

[NowISeetheLight]

11. Miles Driven

I've read about some states experimenting with miles driven taxes. Oregon or Washington, I think? I believe something like that, along with factoring in the weight of the vehicle, would be the way to go.

[Xolodno]

12. Seems like a simple solution, but it isn't.

A lot of lower income families have to drive long distances to get to work. Thus they bear the brunt of those taxes. As for me, I'm completely remote and my driving is to Stater Bros and back once or twice a week. My car gets almost 40 mpg, I thought about getting an electric, but after I look at the prices, doesn't make sense.

We need more trains and incentives to stop driving solo. When we were in Europe, never had to rent a car, can't say the same here in California. And it sucks that trying to get some point of doing so is met with a bunch of hold outs who want to keep the car culture. We can't even get a bullet train between Fresno and Bakersfield without non stop law suits by people who just want to oppose it. It would be done already and cheaper. But I guess that one gas station to Schafter needs to be satisfied.

[NowISeetheLight]

13. CA

Living here I agree. Even here in the Coachella Valley the bus service isn't great. When I look at the bus stops they're often taken over by homeless people with few passengers waiting. I wouldn't want to ride the bus here. Some of these bus stop residents look scary. Reading stories in the Mpls StarTribune we aren't the only city with the issue. Public transit crime is a real issue.

They're trying to get a train from here into LA but it's still a long way off. It would start in Tucson, go to Phoenix. Then LA but run thru Palm Springs. I'd ride it if it was here. These projects take way to much time, like the CA bullet train.

https://www.rctc.org/projects/coachella-valley-san-gorgonio-pass-corridor-rail-corridor-service-project/

[madville]

15. My city removed everything from bus stops

Except the signs. All the benches and enclosures are gone because they were taken over by the homeless folks.

[RockRaven]

8. Even with the increase, it's less than 10% of the purchase price -- at least where I am.

Setting aside whether lower gas prices would actually be a good thing or a bad thing (economically, morally, climatically, whatever the standard), the state gas tax could be zero and gas prices would still be much higher here than the national average. So yeah, the difference in the gas tax is lost in the already painful noise.