Gas Tax and Fees Repeal Made it to November Ballot (Stanton: DMV, salary)

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by payutenyodagimas

regulatory agencies like Board of Accountancy and the like should be able to source their revenue from the professionals they regulate. they should not be relying on the general funds/tax

Many do, they in effect double dip.

[TheFlats]

Originally Posted by payutenyodagimas

regulatory agencies like Board of Accountancy and the like should be able to source their revenue from the professionals they regulate. they should not be relying on the general funds/tax

But then they turn into revenue collecting agencies and have to directly bill every business they deal with. It adds way too much complexity and bureaucracy.

I think self funding government agencies make sense in some cases, but for many regulatory agencies I'd rather see them funded through the general budgets via taxes on businesses, as they are now.

This isn't to say there is no waste or room for introducing efficiencies in California government; there is. But you have to tackle it case by case, department by department mostly. Simply eliminating agencies or telling them to cut some arbitrary amount of their budget is a recipe for more burden on the general population as it results in less efficient govt and elimination of politically weak or easy things. I.E. this department is easier to cut even though that department is really what needs to be trimmed, but they have a more entrenched union.

I often wonder if we paid senior leadership and executives in our public agencies private sector salaries if we would see different results. Why would I sign up to run a 1000 person govt agency for 300K/year and deal with all of the crap that comes with it vs running a private sector 1000 person organization that could pay me 1.5 million?

Even with the pension it doesn't even out, we're counting on either the executives to run these organizations out of altruism or we're getting folks who aren't as competitive as we need because those people have all fled to the private sector. Then you end up with crappy public agency CEO's who end up doing much more harm to the organization than if you had just budgeted 200k/year more for that position. And these executives aren't protected by any union, they usually can be removed by a board quite easily for performance issues.

Anyways, tangential to the original topic but I thought I'd throw my thoughts out there.

Originally Posted by expatCA

Many do, they in effect double dip.

You mean they have mixed revenue sources. They aren't paying for the same budgetary items or personnel twice. You might have an issue with their budget and spending but its not "double dipping".

[DKM]

Originally Posted by payutenyodagimas

regulatory agencies like Board of Accountancy and the like should be able to source their revenue from the professionals they regulate. they should not be relying on the general funds/tax

They do. No money from the general funds go to the BOA. Ignore the ignorant anti government ranters...

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

I'm not sure where people get the idea that taxpayers are entitled to vote on every fee and tax increase. My federal tax burden will go up because of the changes that were made in the tax bill, I don't recall being able to vote on that one.

But, why should that mean that you wouldn't want to vote when you can?

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe

But, why should that mean that you wouldn't want to vote when you can?

It doesn't, when did I say otherwise?

[citizensadvocate]

Originally Posted by payutenyodagimas

maybe we don't need this new gas tax. it seems to me the quality of infrastructures depend on the county.


I took the Ortega Highway last month and when we reached the county line between OC and San Bernardino, the smooth asphalt in the OC side became rough/cracking in SB


you can also compare the I5 in OC and LA. you know you are in LA when the 12 lanes in OC become just 6 lanes in LAC


its not scientific but its just my observation

I actually did a question on this on city data. That i5 portion is a major exception to the ten land minimum in much of LA county. The only other exception is 110 north of downtown. Though it’s true that Orange County maintains their portion better so less bumps between the concrete slaps.

Though i am not so optimistic that this ballot measure would change anything given the patterns of what happens at the ballot box these days.

Though the gas tax has not kept up with inflation for a while. If they didn’t have this tax I bet they will do worse things to get the money off of us.

[CaliRestoration]

Originally Posted by DKM

They are fixing roads with it. So I don't see many people saying lets cancel the road work and save 12 cents a gallon when it already costs 3.50

No, they're paying down Public Union pension liabilities with it.

[k374]

gas taxes should be repealed. If they want to fix the bridges and roads they can take the money required from the illegal alien and sanctuary city fund.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by k374

gas taxes should be repealed. If they want to fix the bridges and roads they can take the money required from the illegal alien and sanctuary city fund.

and how much money is in the illegal alien and sanctuary city funds? Since you made the claim you must know, right?

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

It doesn't, when did I say otherwise?

You said, basically, why should we think we should be able to vote in our state if we can't vote on federal taxes. To that, I say, why not vote when you can? And we can do so in our state. Unless you're just being obtuse.