California gasoline is comprised of the following taxes…
-
Federal Excise Tax 18¢
-
State Excise Tax 18.3¢
-
Underground Gas Tank Tax (Federal) 1¢
-
Underground Gas Tank Tax (State) 1.4¢
-
Misc State, County and Local Taxes approximately 26.1¢
Total California Gasoline Tax: 63.9¢
The sales tax rate in CA is 8.25%, which is applied to the gasoline and the federal and state excise taxes. So your 36.3¢ in excise taxes, is itself taxed by 8.25%.
That’s roughly another 3¢ in tax on top of your excise taxes, making the total taxes 66.9¢ a gallon.
Taxing a tax is Double-Taxation.
Now, if you live in California, the money you are using to pay for the gasoline and its taxes has already been taxed. So, you are using your after-tax dollars to pay excise taxes that are then taxed themselves by the sales tax.
Using after-tax money to pay for taxed taxes is Triple-Taxation.
- We have the highest sales tax rate in the country.
- We have the highest gasoline taxes in the country.
- We have the #1 highest income tax rate in the country.
Just because Hawaii raised their rate on the few millionaires they have to the highest in the nation doesn’t make up for California raising their tax rate on the majority of their population like singles making $47,000 ( and $94,000 for couples) to 9.55% while HI, for the same middle-class tax bracket is at 8.25%.
We can’t balance the budget, fund state worker pensions or healthcare, maintain public infrastrucutre like roads and electric grids, keep prisoners in jail or score anywhere accept on the bottom in national education performance tests.
With the highest taxes in the nation, in the 7th largest economy in the world, how can anyone still believe that increasing taxes or adding more taxes is the answer to any of our problems?
With all the tax money this state generates, we should be #1 in education, #1 in infrastructure, #1 in everything. Instead, we are dead last in all of it…despite the highest taxes.
There is not enough money anywhere to fill any government spending hole.
And the logic follows that if being the highest taxed state doesn’t fix any problems, then it’s not about how much money the state has, it’s about how, and who they are giving it to.
Categories: Government Failures, Personal Economics
Angrywoodchuck's Blog 
Right on brother. I am a native and i am mad as hell seeing my state crumble around me. I fear fro my kids and what will be left for them. Keep fighting!!
No wonder California is the only state to have its population go down by over 1 million, while all other states grew.
Absolutely.
This is also an example of something we’ve forgotten because we’ve never known it any other way…that these decisions to tax or not tax, what to tax, and even social issues like gay marriage, abortion, gun rights, capital punishment…these concepts were never meant to be decided at the national level; the Founders wanted these all decided at the state level with each state listening to its own population in ruling one way or the other on all of these issues.
The genius of this, as the Founders knew, was that if you didn’t like your state’s taxes or positions on different social topics…you could just move to another state. For some things, like over taxation such as this triple-taxation, you can see why people (and companies) are migrating out of California. The result of that is lower tax revenue for California, a shrinking government budget, less money for infrastructure and services, while the states they are moving to enjoy more talented labor, more businesses and more tax revenue. In this way, states are actually competing with each other for businesses and talented labor. This keeps everyone “honest” because states that are abusive are left behind, while states attracting everyone leap ahead. This process naturally forces abusive states to correct course, repeal taxes, change their positions…all in an attempt to stop the bleeding and bring people back. It is a GENIUS system.
Of course, we have crippled much of this system by allowing the federal government to determine too many things at a federal level, which means if we don’t like it, our only option is to move to another country, and how likely is that to happen?
We need to return ALL of the power to the States, the way it was meant to be. Did you know the Constitution originally started with, “We the States…” and not “We the People?” That is how important State power was to the Founding Fathers. They only changed to “people” because ultimately, that is where the true power lies, even within each state. Unfortunately we have surrendered much of the power of the people AND the power of our States.
We need to change course and give control back to the States. This is an unusual and startling concept for many people, perhaps even too revolutionary. Sadly, this is how the Constitution was written, this was how the Founders wanted it, and over many years and many generations, we have simply forgotten that was the way it used to be.