Nothing riles Southern Californians like a new tax on their God-given right to drive. Yet motorists in Los Angeles County might be paying an extra 9 cents per gallon at the gas pump -- or an additional $90 on their vehicle registration fees. The purpose? It would help fight global warming.
Voters will decide whether to approve a "climate change mitigation and adaptation fee" under a proposed law being debated by the state legislature. It has already been endorsed by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The money would be used to fund public transportation and other projects that ease traffic congestion at a time when the state budget is strapped and money from Washington has all but dried up. Critics are hopping mad. They say that it exploits public sympathy for global warming in order to fund projects that are already sucking down taxpayers' dollars.
Who gets tapped? Read after the jump.
Supporters point out that many ambitious public transportation projects, including the Subway to the Sea, the Wilshire bus-only lane and the extension of the Gold Line subway aren't fully funded -- and risk being sidelined.
The tax would pull in an estimated $400 million a year, which makes it a model that other cash-strapped states will no doubt find enticing. California voters will have to decide whether or not it's fair.
<Never mind whether it's fair; is the money going to go for the stated purpose at all? I think not. Also, if you've seen the movie Freejack, you have an inkling of the direction the world is going. Only the rich will be able to afford freedom, justice, water, oxygen. Anything which favors the wealthy, no matter what it is, no matter what other effects it has, drives our future right out of us and into the hands of whoever's got the most money.>
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