California small business owners are reeling from the disastrous gas tax passed by the General Assembly this month.
The so-called Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 slapped taxpayers with an 18-cent-per-gallon tax hike, raising the gas tax from 12 cents to 30 cents per gallon. Meanwhile, the diesel tax rate rose 16 cents, from 20 to 36 cents a gallon.
“The average business owner on the street had no idea this was coming,” NFIB/California State Director Tom Scott told the Pasadena Star-News. “Six days to push through a $52 billion bill — and there’s no sunset on this tax. Working families are going to end up paying $300 to $600 more a year.”
Scott added that the tax is “bad public policy” and “bad politics.”
One small business owner, Carlos Soto of My Local Flower Shop in Leseda, told the Star-News that he would be forced to cut back operations.
“I’m going to have to reduce my delivery area and also let some of my employees go. This is absolutely unbelievable,” he said. “I know we have more roads and cars on the streets, but all these years the money that was collected for gas taxes, car taxes and all of the other taxes has gone somewhere else.”
