Ideology, Incidence and the Political Economy of Fuel Taxes: Evidence from California 2018 Proposition 6

Details

• Creators:
  Epstein, Lucas ; Muehlegger, Erich
• Corporate Creators:
  Yale University ; University of California, Davis. Institute of Transportation Studies ; National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST)
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program ; United States. Department of Transportation. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Transportation
  • Taxes
  • Politics
  • Policy, legislation and regulation
  • Economic conditions Transportation taxes
  • Political economy
  • Voting
• Publication/ Report Number:
  NCST-UCD-RR-24-10;UCD-ITS-RR-24-28
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.7922/G2445JVN
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  California;United States
• Edition:
  Final Research Report (October 2022 – September 2023)
• Corporate Publisher:
  National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) (UTC)
• Abstract:
  In 2018, California voters rejected Proposition 6, a ballot initiative that sought to repeal state gasoline taxes and vehicle fees enacted as part of the 2017 Road Repair and Accountability Act. This paper examines the relationship between support for the proposition, political ideology and the economic burdens imposed by the Act. For every hundred dollars of annual per-household costs imposed by the Road Repair and Accountability Act, support for proposition rose by 3–5 percentage points, roughly comparable to a commensurate increase in the share of ”liberal” voters. Notably, the relationship between voting and the economic burden of the policy is seven times strong in the most conservative tracts relative to the most liberal tracts. This heterogeneity has important implications for the popular support for environmental taxes, as conservative areas in California and elsewhere tend to bear a higher burden from transportation and energy taxes than liberal areas.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  69A3551747114
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/75663/dot_75663_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 979.85 KB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:4b5a498406455b476f87383c1e8b02ec14d85f87512f271f6bee1fefde70b999c209fd30d5e0383470b9ddf7d4a1eb14883f97d77fc1148f7191e60ccaae8d0f