“For most drivers, if it’s a tax or a fee, it makes no difference driving is becoming more expensive,” Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey said.
Following a twitter exchange between San Diego District 5 Supervisor Jim Desmond and Elon Musk, San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas, who also chairs SANDAG, took to Twitter to “set the record straight.”
In the Twitter exchange, Desmond asked for Musk’s help in devising a transportation plan for San Diego “instead of the plan we have now in which they want to tax us out of our cars.” Musk responded and Desmond met with the Boring Company the next day.
KUSI News tweeted on the exchange also referring to the Road User Charge as a tax.
Vargas then, in a series of tweets, gave her response beginning with, “I’m fascinated by all this misinformation going around.” She said regarding the Road User Charge, often referred to as the mileage tax, would be decided by the state, then added “TO BE CLEAR: no gov. agency has the authority to implement a tax that would impact our region without voter approval.”
Mayor Richard Bailey pointed out in a tweet that “while a tax would require voter approval, a fee/charge would not. So a “charge” that funds a transportation system would not necessarily require voter approval.”
This clarification by the mayor alludes to Vargas’ tweet about taxes requiring a public vote. If the proposed mileage charge is a fee not a tax what purpose does Vargas’ “TO BE CLEAR” tweet hold?
On KUSI Good Evening San Diego, the mayor elaborated on references of tax vs fee but pointed out that to most road users it may be just semantics, whether fee or tax, the goal of the state and SANDAG is to make driving more expensive.
“So drivers would be paying more but won’t actually have a say on whether or not this is implemented…SANDAG will be pursuing legislation to implement this charge. So they are trying to circumvent the voters in this. It is completely misleading and leads to questions of whether or not the agency is really being as transparent as they should with both the board and also with the public.”
