California motorists’ vehicle license fee would more than double under a proposed November 2014 ballot measure.
The constitutional amendment would phase in a surcharge of an extra one percent of the vehicle’s value each year.
State Senator Jim Nielsen says the tax is unnecessary. Money that should have been earmarked for highway maintenance has been used for other purposes.
Click here to listen to State Senator Jim Nielsen

Nielsen says roads and highways should take priority over the High Speed Railway project which has been appropriated 350 million dollars to build 80 to 130 miles of un-electrified railway between Madera and Bakersfield.
Click here to listen to State Senator Jim Nielsen

Under Department of Motor Vehicles schedules, someone who bought a 2013 Honda Civic for $16,000 this year will pay a $52 license fee in 2018. If the road repairs act passed, that motorist would pay about $130 that year, when the 1 percent surcharge would take full effect. The increase is estimated to raise  $3 billion a year for the state’s ailing road system.

Proponents of the bill would have to overcome a legacy of opposition from motorists, car dealers and others against past proposals to raise the “car tax.”