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San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan renewed a promise to suspend the gas tax in California as prices continue to skyrocket amid the war in Iran.
“It is the most regressive tax in California,” Mahan said. “Working people, rural people are spending three times as much maintaining our roads as wealthy EV owners.”
Meanwhile, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said cutting the gas tax would upend the state’s budget for infrastructure projects. He said he wants “everyone who is sitting here to drive on the roads, cross our bridges, make sure transit is working.”
“You have to fund it [all] somehow,” he added.
Becerra said he’d instead focus on building homes and lowering prescription drug prices.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said homeownership was “the American Dream,” and said he’d work to provide down-payment assistance grants for those looking to purchase a home.
“We will build two million housing units using surplus property that school districts have in every single county in this state,” Thurmond said. “And we will build two-point-three million units by the year 2030.”
Cutting red tape and regulations for housing construction remained a key talking point for billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer.
“We need to work to shorten and reduce the cost of permitting,” he said. “We need to drop the cost of construction.”
Antonio Villaraigosa suggested a first-time buyer assistance program, offering a $25 billion initiative, at no cost to the taxpayer, that will help them get into their first house.
Katie Porter said that to meet the housing crisis, California has to build faster. “California has permitting delays, a lack of labor…we need to innovate in housing to bring costs down.”
