Judge Deems Gas Tax Repeal Ballot Language Misleading To Voters

A judge says the California attorney general's description of a ballot initiative to repeal the recently approved gas tax increase is misleading.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley says he's likely to order Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra to rewrite the ballot title and summary when the case resumes Friday.

The judge said Becerra's description would be confusing to voters because it focuses on the loss of transportation funding rather than the repeal of taxes. Lawmakers in April boosted gas taxes and vehicle registration fees to pay for road repairs.

Becerra's ballot title reads: "Eliminates recently enacted road repair and transportation funding by repealing revenues dedicated for those purposes."

Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen, who's running for governor, is backing the repeal initiative and brought the suit demanding the ballot language be changed. He suggested using this language in the title: "Repeals recent legislation that created new gas tax, diesel tax, vehicle registration fee and zero-emission vehicle fee."

The title and description of the initiative must appear on repeal petitions. Opponents of the gas tax need to collect 365,000 valid signatures to put it on the November 2018 ballot.