Jerry Brown and legislative leaders on Thursday began striking deals giving almost $1 billion in road project funding to the districts of wavering lawmakers. Jerry Brown, the California Legislature agreed late Thursday to pass a $52 billion transportation package, funded in part by a dramatic gas-tax increase - the first in 23 years.

The governor visited a closed-door meeting of Assembly Democrats Wednesday trying to round up votes he'll need to reach the two-thirds supermajority required to increase taxes.

In California's one-party state - everything in the state, everything, is controlled by the Democratic Party and its union allies - the governor and legislature rushed through a massive tax hike on gas and diesel fuel along with higher auto registration fees with hardly anyone realizing it.

"This is a plan that gets the road repairs started right away", Beall said. "Californians are exhausted of the constant traffic jams and crumbling roads, and they expect us to find solutions", added de León. "Your taxes will be higher". Vehicle owners would pay a new, sliding scale registration fee based on the value of the auto or truck, and owners of electric vehicles would pay a $100 a year fee in lieu of fuel taxes. After fierce wrangling on the Assembly floor, the bill ultimately cleared with 54 votes, the bare minimum it needed to pass. Last minute bill amendments, such as to add earmarks to win support from reluctant lawmakers, has always been the practice in the Capitol. There's a $130 billion gap between maintenance needs for state highways and local roads over the next 10 years and projected revenue for infrastructure fix. SB 132, a separate bill which went into print Thursday, amends the Budget Act of 2016 to include $500 million for the project, granting Cannella's wish.

Sen. Jeff Stone, a Republican who represents the 28th District in Riverside County, was firmly against the largest gas tax increase in the state's history. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, and Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes, D-Corona.

Gov. Brown wants the tax increase, now called Senate Bill 1, to be passed this week.

Cannella was the only Republican in the Legislature to vote for the bill.

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Republicans slammed the plan, which would raise more money from taxpayers in a state that already had a high tax burden.

For many years Sacramento has squandered our tax monies on a myriad of costs associated with illegal immigration and trains to nowhere while California's infrastructure has deteriorated. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa.

"We collect about $4 billion in gas tax for roads". This would leave California with the highest gas and auto taxes in the nation by far. And South Carolina's state House approved a two-cent per gallon gas tax hike, which Gov. Henry McMaster (R) has threatened to veto. Sales taxes on diesel fuel would rise from 9 percent to 13 percent.

Electric vehicles would cost their drivers $100 per year beginning in 2020. He wants you to pay more for driving on them.

"I'm going to my ranch in two years", Brown said last week, a nod to plans to retire in 2019 to his Colusa County homestead. In the coming years, the South Coast Air Quality Management District is expected to consider rules that would require companies to switch to zero- or near-zero-emission trucks, as well as rules that would require cleaner trucks serving the region's ports, warehouses and railyards.

"These investments will create good-paying jobs, improve traffic safety and expand public transit access in communities across the state", De Leon said in a statement.

Democratic Sen. Steve Glazer, whose East Bay District includes Walnut Creek, Concord, Antioch, Pleasanton and Livermore, voted against it.