Taxes Added to Gas Costs

Re “Lockyer Urges Steps to Cut Gas Prices,” Nov. 23: There you go again. The state attorney general, a typical Democratic politician, demagogues this issue without presenting all the facts. Your article and Bill Lockyer leave out the federal tax (14.1 plus 15 cents per gallon) which amounts to 29.1 cents for every gallon of gas. Add the five cents per gallon state tax and the four cents per gallon clean air cost and we have a total cost to the consumer of 38.1 cents per gallon.

If Lockyer really wants to lower gas prices, he should lobby the federal government to lower gas taxes.

HARRY BORLAND

Laguna Woods

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One step Lockyer might consider is the state sales tax, assessed not only on the base price of gasoline but also on the federal taxes and on the state taxes. A state tax on a federal tax and on other state taxes. If that isn’t criminal, it ought to be. The state sales tax on gasoline is a dirty little secret. Every other item we buy as a daily need is clearly priced, and the sales tax clearly spelled out and added. At the service station, it’s carefully buried. So much at the pump, the placard says.

Take away the state sales tax, or even apply it just to the product, and you’ve removed much of the price differential. But don’t hold your breath until our Legislature recognizes this or does something about it.

AL V. CLINE

Rolling Hills Estates