CA Hits Fuel Tax Jackpot: Here's How Much San Mateo Gets

SAN MATEO, CA — While California motorists and truckers are busy pumping billions of gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel into their tanks, the state taxman has been stuffing billions of dollars in new fuel tax revenues into the bank — so far nearly $4 billion and counting.

It’s been two years since passage of the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, better known as Senate Bill 1, or simply SB1, that tacked an additional 12-cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline beginning in November 2017, followed by another 5.6-cents that kicked in this past July 1 — bringing the total state tax on a gallon of gasoline to 47.3 cents and cementing California’s position as being the highest gas tax state in the nation.

SB1 also imposed an additional 20-cents-per-gallon tax on diesel fuel in addition to increasing the sales tax on diesel by 1.75 percent and raising annual vehicle registration fees ranging from $25 to $175.

When all the new levies imposed by SB1’s 48-pages of legislative prose are tallied up, hundreds of millions are pouring into state coffers every month. It was one of the most contentious California tax issues in the nearly two decades since former Gov. Gray Davis was recalled from office for trying to raise auto registration fees. SB1 survived a bitter repeal attempt and resulted in the recall of state Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat representing a heavily Republican district in Southern California, for voting in favor of the bill.

Although an attempt to repeal the tax was defeated in June 2018, voters did approve Proposition 69, a state constitutional amendment requiring all SB1 tax revenues to be used solely for transportation related purposes. However, money generated from already existing gas taxes and the increased vehicle registration fee will continue going to the state’s general fund.

According to the most recent state statistics, since November 2017, when the new tax became effective about 24.3 million gallons of gasoline and 4.8 billion gallons of diesel have been sold in California. By comparison, during roughly the same period, Californians guzzled a little more than one billion gallons of beer, wine and hard liquor generating less than half-a-billion dollars in tax revenue. Where did all this new fuel tax revenue go?

The lion’s share was distributed to Caltrans for a variety of alphabet soup state transportation projects including the Solutions for the Congested Corridors Program (SCCP), the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program (TCEP), two Local Partnership Programs (LPP), the State Highway Operation & Protection Program (SHOPP) and the Active Transportation Program (ATP).

Between January 2018 and last June 30, Caltrans received about $2.8 billion in SB1 gas tax revenues alone. The agency collected millions more from the increased diesel fuel tax and the attendant diesel fuel sales tax increase. Caltrans from the transportation improvement fee imposed through increases in annual vehicle registration fees. So far, increased vehicle registration fees have raised $1.4 billion.

According to the most recent California Transportation Commission reports, through last March 160 projects had been approved under the various Caltrans programs and 129 construction contracts had been awarded. Projects included highway repaving, construction of bicycle lanes, erecting sounds walls and HOV toll lane construction. A project list will be updated in a new quarterly report expected to be released at the Commission’s Oct. 9 meeting.

But the state doesn’t hog all the money. Local governments get their share from the Road Maintenance & Rehabilitation Account, a special fund established by SB1 and administered by the State Controller. Distribution of the money is divided about equally between cities and counties.

Since distributions from this account began in January 2018, through last July 22, some $1.6 billion was doled out based upon population — $803 million to cities and $751 million to counties, not including revenue from the additional gasoline tax increase on July 1.

For example, sparsely-populated Alpine County high in the Sierras received just $541,000, while Los Angeles, the state’s most populous county received $140 million. Cities, too, saw a broad range of distributions. Tiny Amador City in California’s gold country and the City of Vernon, south of Los Angeles, each received less than $5,000. The remaining 479 municipalities received distributions ranging from several thousand to several million, with the state’s four largest cities — Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco —collecting about 17 percent of the total.

So far, the county of San Mateo has received more than $14.2 million — with City of San Mateo getting $2,359,850 of that funding — in SB1 revenues.

City officials say they used $607,574 of the money to complete the E. Hillsdale Boulevard Restoration project, which included:

ADA Curb Ramp Installation (New), ADA Curb Ramp Rehab/Repair(Existing), Pavement Rehab/Repair (Existing), Paving and/or Striping Rehab/Repair (Existing Safety), Sidewalk and/or Crosswalk Installation (New), Sidewalk and/or Crosswalk Rehab/Repair(Existing), Traffic Signals, Lights, and/or Signage Installation (New Safety), Traffic Signals, Lights, and/or Signage Rehab/Repair (Existing Safety).

The project rehabilitated the pavement on E. Hillsdale Boulevard from Saratoga Drive to Norfolk Street (approximately 0.44 miles). The treatment included milling the existing pavement surface then applying an asphalt concrete overlay.

Related work included the upgrade of curb access ramps to current standards, installation of pavement striping, and other incidental work such as raising of manhole frames and covers and utility box lids. The project was located on E. Hillsdale Boulevard from Saratoga Drive to Norfolk Street in the City of San Mateo

Another $1,553,335 in SB1 funding will be used for several other projects that are in progress, including overhauls on Rochester and Ottawa streets.

--

Patch staffer Bob Porterfield contributed to this story