Darrell Steinberg, the president pro tem of the state Senate who will leave the position and the Legislature later this year, proposed Thursday that gasoline taxes be increased sharply to fight global warming and provide new financial support for low- and middle-income families.
But his plan could be dead on arrival, given the Capitol’s political dynamics and opposition from both left and right.
Steinberg, speaking to the Sacramento Press Club, offered the gas tax – about 15 cents a gallon and $3.6 billion a year to start and then rising over time – as an alternative to bringing the fuel industry under the state’s “cap-and-trade” fees aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions, now scheduled for 2015.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/02/20/6176363/dan-walters-steinbergs-gas-tax.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy
