A new gas tax went into effect in California today which helped make California’s gas cost $1 more per gallon than the national average. From CNBC:

California’s already-high gas prices jumped up again on July 1, with a new 5.6 cents per gallon gasoline tax hike.

The increase brings the average price per gallon in California for regular gasoline to a national high of $3.755 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association, more than a dollar a gallon more than the national average of $2.717 per gallon.

The hike takes California’s total statewide gas tax up to 47.3 cents per gallon, according to the state’s Department of Tax and Fee administration.

That doesn’t include local sales tax which is around 2% plus a federal gas tax of 18 cents. Also, those are the prices for regular gas. Premium costs an average of 25 cents more per gallon, making it just over $4 in California on average.

The new gas tax was put in place two years ago to raise $5.2 billion for road repairs in the state. Last year there was an attempt to repeal the tax but it didn’t pass.

I happen to have a friend who is leaving California for good this week. I spent part of the day Sunday visiting with him and saying goodbye. He sold his townhouse near the beach and will be moving to Florida where his new home is bigger, newer, and costs about 1/3 what his current home in CA just sold for.

My friend made a pitch that I should also consider leaving the state at some point. He pointed out that in addition to the more reasonable cost of real estate, Florida doesn’t have a state income tax. Also, the cost of electricity is substantially less than it is in California. That’s especially important for him because he owns an electric car. Just by moving he’ll wind up saving a considerable amount of money. He compared what is happening here to the old story about how to boil a frog, i.e. you keep turning the heat up slowly so the frog doesn’t jump out.

That’s pretty much what’s happening here in this one-party state. The cost of everything keeps going up but always a little at a time. Today it will be up 5.6 cents per gallon. Here’s an LA area news report on the increase: