Overview
- The state excise tax on gasoline increased by 2.2 cents effective July 1, raising California’s rate to 63.4 cents per gallon under the 2017 Road Repair and Accountability Act.
- The automatic adjustment is tied to the California Consumer Price Index and was implemented despite a Republican-led push and a request from GOP members of Congress urging Governor Gavin Newsom to suspend the hike.
- A one-year pause bill, Assembly Bill 1745, failed to advance after the Assembly Transportation Committee blocked it, leaving the statutory inflation adjustment in place.
- State reports show the gas tax helps fund highways, city and county road work and transit projects with roughly $7.6 to $7.94 billion in recent annual revenue directed to those accounts.
- Policymakers and drivers note short-term pain at the pump with California averages near $5.43 a gallon and longer-term pressure on gasoline-tax revenue from rising EV sales and recent refinery closures that have tightened local supply.