Do Fuel Taxes Face Ideological or Economic Opposition? Evidence from Voting on Proposition 6 and Lessons for Policymaking

Fuel taxes play a dual role. They create incentives for drivers to reduce fuel use or switch to more fuel efficient or alternative fuel vehicles, and they provide most of the earmarked infrastructure funding in the U.S. Yet, they also face strong political resistance from voters. This project seeks to unpack the political opposition to gasoline taxes, by examining how precinct-level support for California Proposition 6, which would have immediately reduced state gasoline taxes, covaries with the political ideology of voters and the economic burden of gasoline taxes. As a proxy for the latter, the research team proposes to combine public data on vehicle-miles-traveled and commuting behavior with previously purchased data on the fleet fuel economy at the census-tract level. The team will then estimate voter support of Proposition 6 as a function of different proxies for ideology and the local economic burden imposed by gasoline taxes. The project results will speak directly to the nature of the political constraints that policies like gasoline taxes face from the electorate. Where either ideological or economic opposition to fuel taxes are sufficiently strong, policymakers seeking to address environmental challenges or encourage a transition to electric vehicles might need to look towards alternative policies.

• Record URL:
  https://ncst.ucdavis.edu/project/do-fuel-taxes-face-ideological-or-economic-opposition-evidence-voting-proposition-6-and

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $124,311
• Contract Numbers:

  DOT 69A3551747114

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 
• Managing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  1 Shields Ave
  Davis, California  United States  95616
• Project Managers:

  Iacobucci, Lauren

• Performing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  1 Shields Ave
  Davis, California  United States  95616
• Principal Investigators:

  Muehlegger, Erich

• Start Date: 20221001
• Expected Completion Date: 20230930
• Actual Completion Date: 20240710
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economic impacts; Fuel taxes; Policy, legislation and regulation; Public opinion; Vehicle miles of travel
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Highways; Policy;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01854529
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Center for Sustainable Transportation
• Contract Numbers: DOT 69A3551747114
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Aug 11 2022 2:46PM