GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA: More Pain at the Pump: California Gas Tax Increase Goes into Effect.

According to AAA gas price averages, the average price of gas for July 1 is $4.842 per gallon. In California, it’s at $6.270, several more cents higher than the next highest, which is Hawaii, at $5.612.

NBC Bay Area said that the annual gas tax in California, which is among the highest at 51 cents a gallon, is to pay for infrastructure projects:

The state uses the gas tax to fund different highway and road projects. Proponents argued keeping the increase, so, those projects can continue.

Some economists said the increase comes at a bad time. 

“So, the problem isn’t that the gas tax is itself an overwhelming indignity, it’s that it comes on top of a whole series of indignities. There are a whole bunch of problems with the economy,” said Robert Chapman Wood, SJSU Global Economics Professor.

What the report doesn’t mention, though, is that the pain is the point. In April, a report from the Urban Center offered, “To Ease Pain at the Pump, Help People Avoid the Pump.”

Sure enough, one bullet point reads: “Gas consumption is bad for the climate. Driving should be discouraged, not subsidized. One-fifth of global carbon dioxide omissions [sic] come from transportation, most of it from road vehicles.”

The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) blamed Democrats in California running for Congress, noting that Assembly members Rudy Salas and Adam Gray had the chance to suspend the gas tax but were among those who voted against it. And while Jay Chen claims to be “committed to lowering costs for working Americans,” he hasn’t spoken out against the gas tax increase.

“Families are struggling to keep up with record-high gas prices and California Democrats are making it even worse,” said CLF Press Secretary Cally Perkins. “Californians have the highest gas prices in the nation and have only Democrats to blame for it.”

Why, it’s as if “Elitist environmentalists hate the working class” or something.