California Governor Seeks To Raise State Gasoline Excise Tax

Taxes. California. Governor Brown wants the state to add 12 cents/gallon to the state gasoline tax. Good luck. The good news: California has some wiggle room. Pennsylvania leads the country in state excise tax on gasoline at 58.2 cents/gallon. California's gasoline excise tax is only 38.13 cents. At the new rate, California's excise tax would be 38.13 + 12 = 50.13 cents, still well under that of Pennsylvania. Others:

• North Dakota: 23 cents
• Minnesota: 28.60 cents
• Oklahoma: 17 cents
• Texas: 20 cents
• New Mexico: 18.88 cents
• New York: 43.88 cents
• Massachusetts: 26.54 cents

I'm sure it's just me but after years of driving around the US, I have seldom seen any correlation between the quality of the state highways and the state gasoline tax. Texas seems to have some incredibly good state highways, and it's a huge state with probably more miles of state highways than any other state. Extreme weather variation (winter - summer, e.g., North Dakota) is near the top of the list of reasons for bad roads; single season extremes (hot summers, e.g., Texas, or very cold winters, e.g., Minnesota) would also be near the top of the list (I assume very hot weather is harder on asphalt than very cold winters). Precipitation would be another factor, as would be truck traffic, of course.  California doesn't seem to fit in among any of the "extreme" weather states or heavier truck traffic compared to several other states. Maybe it's all those EVs in California that are not participating the excise gasoline tax program.