Newsom said “people have always looked to California for inspiration.”
hit about $5.50 a gallon. The governor proposed pausing the gas tax increase that would kick in this summer in his budget but said “it’s clear we must go further.” He said he’ll submit “a proposal to put money back in Californians’ pockets to address rising gas prices.” He did not elaborate.
Dan Schnur, a former GOP political consultant and professor at the University of Southern California, said Newsom sensed political danger from sharply rising gas prices, but he left himself room to decide how far to go in providing relief. Democrats pushed for a gas tax in 2017 to pay for road projects.Newsom added that the real answer to restraining rising gas prices is moving away from fossil fuels.
“One thing we cannot do is repeat the mistakes of the past, embracing polluters, drilling even more oil, which only leads to even more extreme weather, more extreme drought, more wildfire,” Newsom said. Newsom’s remarks came as the COVID-19 pandemic that has consumed much of his governorship eases and state coffers overflow. He trumpeted California as the world’s fifth largest economy, with gross domestic product growth outpacing the rest of the country and a million new jobs added in the last 12 months.
Two out of three surveyed disapproved of Newsom’s handling of homelessness, and a majority were unhappy with how he’s dealt with crime after a series of