A ballot measure to repeal California’s controversial new gas tax sponsored by Assemblyman and Republican governor candidate Travis Allen failed to submit signatures by its deadline this week. But voters could still have a chance to have their say on the law in November, as a separate ballot measure to repeal it continues to gather signatures.
Allen’s campaign was unable to collect signatures due to a series of legal battles with Attorney General Xavier Becerra last year over the wording of the ballot measure, Allen said in an interview Friday afternoon.
“The attorney general ran out the clock with his legal maneuvering,” Allen, who represents an Orange County district, said. “The repeal of the gas tax was unable to gather signatures because with each successive court fight, the signatures would have been invalidated.”
The gas tax, which was passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year, raised the tax on gasoline and diesel and raised vehicle registration fees in order to gather $5 billion annually for road repairs and other transit projects.
Allen had sued Becerra’s office for writing what he argued was a misleading title and summary for the repeal measure. A Superior Court judge ruled in Allen’s favor, but an Appeals Court judge overruled that decision and the state Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
A separate ballot measure campaign to repeal the gas tax — sponsored by Allen’s Republican rival for the governor’s office, businessman John Cox, and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association — is still collecting signatures and has a May 21 filing deadline. That petition has gathered 400,000 signatures of the necessary 585,407, the campaign said in a statement Friday.
Allen said he would support that campaign, and that all funds raised by his ballot measure campaign — $87,188, as of the latest filing in September — would go to the Howard Jarvis campaign and to legal costs. His campaign will send all of his donors a form to sign to support the other anti-gas tax ballot initiative. “The movement to stop Jerry Brown’s massive tax increase is larger than any one person or any one group,” Allen said.
Still, it’s an anticlimactic close to a campaign that had elevated Allen’s stature and name recognition among California Republicans. He had titled his committee “Join Travis Allen to Repeal the Gas Tax,” and built his political brand by railing against the law.
Republicans are counting on a repeal measure to make it to the ballot — they expect the opportunity to tear up the law to boost turnout among GOP voters during a challenging midterm year.
A poll conducted by the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies last month found that 52 percent of likely voters in California backed the repeal.
Allen’s campaign had until Monday, Jan. 8 to file 365,880 signatures supporting the measure. No signatures were filed, he said.
Officials at the Santa Clara County and San Diego County Registrars of Voters said they received no signatures for the measure. A spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office said Allen’s campaign also did not submit a required notice that 25 percent of the necessary signatures were gathered.
