The Brown State

It's all about the motorist in my green state of California.

The latest proposal is to lower the sales tax on gasoline while raising the excise tax. To get this passed we will, temporarily, lower the sales tax more than the raising of the excise tax, to give drivers about $.06 savings per gallon.

But! Because gas sales taxes are mandated by law to specific uses such as public transit and public education, these uses are then curtailed. The excise tax, of course, can be used for myriad other things, notably to help balance the budget.

This proposal will effectively kill any possible expansion of light rail in Sacramento. This will destroy any possible improvement in the level of services provided by either RT or Elk Grovian e-tran. On top of [at least initially] lowering the cost of gasoline, thereby increasing demand, we will keep transit marginalized while encouraging more private automobile use.

The governor has spent the better part of his political career touting green jobs, green cars, green whales, green snails and all that, while this single proposal will destroy one of the most viable green things this state has -- public transit. This proposal tells me exactly where being green can go...straight to the shitcan when we fail to grow at 4%. As soon as a budget crisis rears, the environment is damned. Environmentalism is suitable only for periods of economic growth and booming bubbles. At other times, during deflated bubbles, stagnant growth and crushing levels of debt, it matters not.

This is proof that environmentalism is a total farce, that all this "greening" is pure horseshit. We raise hell if electricity costs more to get it from renewables or if discretionary gasoline is a nickel more expensive. We delay diesel emission controls, we destroy public transit. These are the actions of a brown state, not a green state.

Going green in California is one of the biggest bullshit stories ever told...right up there with what clergymen tell their parishioners.